Dead Simple Tiling (DSTiling)

DISCLAIMER: Except this comment, everything in this repository is AI slop. I only tested the behavior on my PC and a VM and it seemed good enough to me. I did glance at the code after GLM-5.2 generated it, but I'm sure it will still crash your PC, burn your house, claim your firstborn, and eat all your pizza. You are free to open issues and PRs, and they may or may not be looked at / appreciated / accepted / ..., so I'm releasing this under MIT license, just in case you don't want to deal with a pretentious a$$hole. If you have an issue with any of that, all the power to you, enjoy one of the tens of other extensions or make your own!

A minimal GNOME Shell extension that gives Windows-style window snapping — and nothing else. No animations, no options, no layouts, no menus. Just correct behavior.

Shortcuts (fixed, not configurable)

Shortcut	Action
Super + Left/Right	Snap to the left/right half of the current monitor. If already on that edge, jump to the opposite half of the neighboring monitor (A‑B‑C traversal).
Super + Alt + Left/Right	Snap into thirds — walk one column (1↔2↔3) of the current monitor; at the edge, cross to column 3/1 of the neighboring monitor. Overrides native workspace-switch.
Super + Up	Maximize. No-op if already maximized.
Super + Down	Restore (un‑snap / un‑maximize to original size), or minimize if already free. Repeated presses: maximized → restored → minimized.
Drag a snapped window	Returns it to its original size (Windows "unsnap").

How it works (why it shouldn't be buggy)

• Each window's snap state — left/right half, or third column (1/2/3) — is tracked in WeakMaps, updated on every transition we perform. Tracking it (rather than re-deriving from an exact geometry match) keeps behavior correct even if you manually resize a snapped window: Super+Down still restores it instead of minimizing. Maximized is read straight from the window's own flags, so it can never drift.
• The only other thing stored is each window's original pre-snap size (in a WeakMap, auto-cleaned when the window closes), used to restore it.
• All native GNOME shortcuts we override are backed up and restored on disable — even after a Shell crash (via a persisted native-backup key).

Requirements

• GNOME Shell 45+ (plain JavaScript ESM, no build step for the code).
• glib-compile-schemas (from glib2-devel / GNOME SDK) — only to compile the settings schema.

Install

cd DSTiling
make install          # copies into ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ and compiles schemas

Then restart GNOME Shell:

• Wayland (default on Bazzite): log out and back in (or loginctl terminate-session).
• X11: Alt+F2 → r → Enter.

Enable it via Extensions app, or:

gnome-extensions enable dstiling@kmouratidis.com

Develop / package

make schemas          # compile schemas only
make package          # build a zip (excludes the compiled schema, per GNOME convention)
make clean            # remove build artifacts

Tail the logs while testing:

journalctl -f /usr/bin/gnome-shell | grep DSTiling

Files

• extension.js — lifecycle + signal wiring
• snap.js — geometry + snap / maximize / restore / minimize logic
• keybindings.js — shortcut registration + native override/restore
• (no prefs.js — there are no options to configure)
• schemas/ — GSettings schema (keybinding keys + crash-safe backup)
• PLAN.md — full design document

Limitations (by design)

No quarter/corner tiling, no vertical halves, no gaps, no focus switching. Fullscreen windows are ignored (use F11).