simple tiling script

tiler.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# DESCRIPTION:
# This is a script to rearrange your windows like this:
#   _________________________         _________________________
#  |  _________   |    x|    |       |   major   x|   minor   x|
#  | | major x |__|     |    |       |            |____________|
#  | |         |  |_____|    |  -->  |            |   minor   x|
#  | |_________|    | ______ |       |            |____________|
#  |         |______||     x||       |            |   minor   x|
#  |_________________|______||       |____________|____________|
#
# It gives you some benefits of tiling window managers without
# forcing you to leave your cozy floating window manager behind.
#
# INSTALL:
# 1) apt-get install libx11-dev libglib2.0-dev libxmu-dev
# 2) gem install ruby-wmctrl
# 3) add keyboard shortcut with something like: rvm-shell -c 'ruby /path/to/tiler.rb'
#
# USAGE:
# When you press the configured keyboard shortcut, tiler rearranges your windows so that
# - The active window takes the left half of the screen
# - The remaining non minimized, non blacklisted windows are spread out over the rest of the screen

require 'wmctrl'

# don't consider windows that match any of these criterias
window_blacklist = [
  ->(w){w.title == 'Buddy List' && w.wm_class == 'Pidgin.Pidgin'}
]

# don't consider minimized windows and taskbars and such
state_blacklist = ['_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN', '_NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_PAGER', '_NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_TASKBAR', '_NET_WM_STATE_STICKY']

desktop = WMCtrl.instance.desktops.find{|e| e.current} #only consider active desktop
wa_x, wa_y, wa_w, wa_h = desktop.workarea

windows = WMCtrl.instance.windows.
          select{|win|
            win.desktop == desktop.id &&
            (win.state & state_blacklist).empty? &&
            !window_blacklist.any?{|condition| condition[win]}
          }

active, rest = windows.find(&:active), windows.reject(&:active)

def move(window, x, y, w, h)
  id = window.class == WMCtrl::Window ? window.id : window
  WMCtrl.instance.action_window(id, :change_state, 'remove', 'fullscreen')
  WMCtrl.instance.action_window(id, :change_state, 'remove', 'maximized_horz', 'maximized_vert')
  WMCtrl.instance.action_window(id, :move_resize, 0, x, y, w, h)
end

l,r,t,b = active.frame_extents
move(active, wa_x, wa_y, wa_w / 2 - l - r, wa_h - t - b) # move active window to left half of the screen

# spread remaining visible, not blacklisted windows to the remaining space
rest.each_with_index do |win, i|
  l,r,t,b = win.frame_extents
  move(win,
    wa_x + wa_w / 2,
    wa_y + (wa_h / rest.size) * i,
    wa_w / 2 - l - r,
    wa_h / rest.size - t - b
  )
end