resizing a window to a specific size in floating mode.

[ZoomyCat]

i3-msg resize only allows "grow, shrink" as requested in #1948 .

I propose the ability to run:
i3-msg resize set height 50 ppt ## Set the height to 50% of the usable space, - what the bar is using.
i3-msg resize set width 50 ppt ## Same as above but set the width to 50%

This should set the side to the % of the current monitor or display. It could also be used to set the height or width in pixels.

The main use case for this would be being able to set windows to specific sizes for the floating interface. From what I understand you aim to do the tiling layout in the best way possible and i3 does a really good job of it, i3 is probably the most understandable and easy to use tiling window manager I've used.

[Airblader]

Does #1893 cover your usecase? It uses px and not ppt, but it works (only) for floating windows.

[ZoomyCat]

@Airblader It would cover it if it allowed ppt as well. Due to both of my monitors being different sizes being able to resize percentages works better for working correctly on both monitors without having to make seperate shortcuts for each monitor.

[ZoomyCat]

Since these are new features going in I suppose it is best if I switch to the git stream of i3. Right?

[Airblader]

Personally, I think the change is rather minor and I'm not opposed to it. Let's see what @stapelberg decides.

My only concern is that we currently always set both width and height and we can't change that for px anymore and I'd really like to avoid introducing entirely different syntax. Would it be OK for you to always specify width and height? So we could have

resize set 30 ppt 40 ppt
resize set 30 ppt 100 px

while introducing

resize set width 30 ppt
resize set height 50 px

would be more complexity in the commands spec. Although we could allow special values w and y which indicate "no change":

# change height to 30 ppt, don't change width
resize set w 30 ppt

xdotool does this with "x" and "y" for windowmove.

Since these are new features going in I suppose it is best if I switch to the git stream of i3. Right?

There are two git streams. master is the current stable branch, next is the development branch. New features will be in next until the next non-bugfix release, so for "early access" (once implemented) you need to use that, yes.

[ZoomyCat]

Sounds good. All the changes I want are fairly minor but would allow a much more robust capability for configuring i3 as a floating manager or a tiling manager.

[Airblader]

much more robust capability for configuring i3 as a floating manager

Yes, but this is not a good argument – i3 is a tiling window manager, not a floating one. If a feature only serves to make it a floating window manager, it will probably be rejected.

[ZoomyCat]

Fair enough. I think the vast majority of how i3 is done is absolutely fantastic. Other things are purely a taste issue.