How to set default mode settings, such as alignment?

[zenzoa]

I'm getting started with scroll, and trying to figure out how to setup my default mode settings. The command set_mode has options for setting alignment, focus, etc. but I don't see equivalent initial config options for. How do I set the starting mode to be eg. h after focus nocenter_horiz nocenter_vert? Thanks in advance - I'm really enjoying scroll so far!

[dawsers]

There used to be a command workspace <name> exec <command> which worked like a simple workspace rule, but since I added Lua scripting, I saw you could do much more interesting things with it. In the case you mention, you would create a my_set_mode.lua script:

local scroll = require("scroll")

local function on_create_ws(workspace, _)
  -- For example
  scroll.workspace_set_mode(workspace, { insert = "before", center_horizontal = true})
end

scroll.add_callback("workspace_create", on_create_ws, nil)

and every time you create a new workspace, it will modify the mode settings. This also allows you to do much more complicated things, like filtering by workspace name or output, etc., and that is why I deprecated workspace exec.

To enable the script at startup, set in your config:

set $lua_scripts /home/xxxx/.config/scroll/scripts
lua $lua_scripts/my_set_mode.lua

[zenzoa]

This is cool and powerful, though it feels like basic config options would be better set within the config data file rather than in separate imperative scripts. But, that's just my opinion of course! I assume this works for the initial workspace as well?

[dawsers]

Yes, this should work even for the initial workspace.

I mostly agree with you, the problem is defining what "basic config options" are. Your suggestion for default modes is reasonable, but scroll/sway have many options, some are run-time and others are config-only. Each has limitations within its own domain, for example, you can define animations with a lot of detail in the config, but you cannot do the same at run-time using scrollmsg (you can only enable/disable them). I am open to adding some sort of way to set the default mode/modifiers in the config, but, should it be global, per output, or per workspace?

[zenzoa]

I like the way you have the layout widths/heights set up. You can define them globally (at the root level of the config file), or per-output (within the output definition block). Oddly the layout mode can only be set in the output block, but not globally. I could see a world where workspaces are defined similarly to outputs, like workspace "my-workspace" { ... }, and workspace-specific settings could live in there. You'd just have to decide which takes precedence if a setting is defined in both workspace and output (probably workspace?).

[dawsers]

OK, since 7882c5f there are three new config commands:

layout_default_mode is a global command.

output <name> layout_default_mode is a per named output command

workspace <name> layout_default_mode is a per named workspace command

Per workspace commands such as output, gaps or layout_default_mode can be written using a similar braces structure as per-output commands, like this:

workspace 1 {
  gaps inner 4
  gaps outer 20
  output DP-2
  layout_default_mode before center_horiz
}

The workspace command for a named workspace overrides the output command, which overrides the global command, which in turn overrides scroll's defaults. Any command only overrides those modifiers it sets, the rest still using the ones set with lower priority.