script, to run in the background, for Ubuntu 14.04 + Unity, to hide the Unity launcher only on specific viewports. Requires wmctrl to be installed

hide_launcher.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""
Copyright (C) 2014 Jacob Vlijm
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or any later version. This
program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You
should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this
program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
"""

import subprocess
import time


# set the hide-launcher values for your viewports; in rows/columns
# the example below is for 4 viewports, launcher visible only on viewport 1
hide_launcher = (False, True, True, True)

# don't change anything below (or it must be the time.sleep(2) interval)
key = " org.compiz.unityshell:/"+\
      "org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/unityshell/ "
pr_get = "gsettings get "; pr_set = "gsettings set "
check = pr_get+key+"launcher-hide-mode"
hide = pr_set+key+"launcher-hide-mode 1"
show = pr_set+key+"launcher-hide-mode 0"

def get_value(command):
    return subprocess.check_output(
        ["/bin/bash", "-c", command]).decode('utf-8').strip()

# get screen resolution
output = get_value("xrandr").split(); idf = output.index("current")
screen_res = (int(output[idf+1]), int(output[idf+3].replace(",", "")))


while True:
    # get total span size all viewports, position data
    wsp_info = get_value("wmctrl -d").strip()
    scr_data = [item.split("x") for item \
                in wsp_info.split(" ") if "x" in item][0]
    # get current position (viewport coordinates)
    VP = eval(wsp_info[wsp_info.find("VP: "):].split(" ")[1])
    # calculated viewports rows / columns
    VP_hor = int(scr_data[0])/int(screen_res[0])
    VP_vert = int(scr_data[1])/int(screen_res[1])
    # calculated viewport positions
    range_hor = [i*screen_res[0] \
                 for i in range(int(VP_hor))]
    range_vert = [i*screen_res[1] \
                  for i in range(int(VP_vert))]
    viewports = [(h, range_vert[i])\
                 for i in range(len(range_vert)) for h in range_hor]
    current_viewport = viewports.index(VP); a_hide = get_value(check)
    if (hide_launcher[current_viewport], a_hide == "0") == (True, True):
        subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", hide])
    elif (hide_launcher[current_viewport], a_hide == "0") == (False, False):
        subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", show])
    else:
        pass
    
    time.sleep(1)

explanation: http://askubuntu.com/a/529621/72216