21.0 new terminal docking feedback

[Gabgobie]

Hi,

originally I was really excited for the new terminal docking. At first glance it looks great.

Unfortunately, since the docking is emulated by matching the terminal window's size to the xpipe section, xpipe and the terminal still behave as different windows.

Super + Arrow results in the terminal getting split from xpipe but that I can live with as it makes it easy to get into my usual workflow. The real issue is that the terminal shrinks when going from a 1440p monitor to a 1080p one and I have little control over it from there. Moving it back using the other arrow, it stays small and misplaced. When moving it to my portrait monitor, I was unable to full screen it, even when using the mouse.

Ultimately, I had to disable the feature almost immediately. It is probably only really suited for single monitor setups right now.

I admittedly didn't spend a lot of time with it before disabling the feature and going back to the old behavior but assuming my observations are somewhat accurate, I have some suggestions to improve the situation if they are technically possible.

• While the terminal is docked, it should be embedded in a way that makes xpipe and the terminal behave as one window.
• When the terminal is decoupled from xpipe, immediately unlock the window to behave like it did before the update.
• Provide a way to merge the windows again - (unsure if one exists already)

Best,
Gab

---

Tested on

• Windows
• xpipe 21.0

[crschnick]

Thanks for the feedback. I can see the issue with the multiple screens and display scales. I don't think this is easily fixable due to how window coordinates work, so I will see what to do about this.

If you decouple the terminal, it should behave as previously. E.g. if you drag it somewhere else

To merge them, there is the terminal button at the bottom right:

[bahrampeymani]

can add this feature on Linux ?

[crschnick]

No, this is only possible on Windows. Other OSes don't have the available APIs to fully implement this

[bahrampeymani]

Maybe this could be possible using a tool, for example like WezTerm. I think that would give a better sense of integration.

[crschnick]

@bahrampeymani I am quite certain that this will not be possible like that on Linux or macOS. I haven't tested everything, but the things I looked into weren't possible.

@Gabgobie You can try whether https://github.com/xpipe-io/xpipe-ptb works now, I reworked the logic for multiple screens

[Gabgobie]

Sorry for taking so long.

My Screens from left to right are:

• 1080p Landscape 27"
• 1440p Landscape 32"
• 1080p Portrait 24"

I installed ptb and tried it out with the Default -> Local Machine terminal.

To get accurate results I went with my usual workflow, XPipe on the middle screen.

Using Super + Shift + LeftArrow I moved the console window to the 1080p landscape screen. It did not automatically full screen, which would feel right but is to my understanding not currently described as default behavior. Maybe take it as a suggestion since having an "almost fullscreen" terminal feels weird to me.

Using Super + UpArrow to fullscreen the terminal didn't work. It seems to not unlock when moved using the keyboard.

Moving it back over XPipe using Super + Shift + RightArrow the same issue as before applies. The dimensions are incorrect.

Further moving it to the right using my keyboard yields an even more distorted terminal. It is still blocked from fullscreening using the keyboard.

The proportions are maintained when moving it back over XPipe.

The new button in the bottom right restores the original position and dimensions of the terminal but doesn't unlock it. It just seems to hide the terminal if it was already in its original position.

I also tried using the cursor to move/unlock it but that didn't work either. Using the window's full screen button instead of my keyboard, it will change dimensions but instead of the usual fullscreen, the terminal will keep a gap to the top of the screen and overlap with my task bar on the bottom.

I'm fairly certain that this feature will remain disabled on my desktop since I usually prefer to have the terminal fullscreened on my portrait screen anyways. I think it can develop the most value on single monitor setups. I'll try it out on my laptop in the coming days.

I believe the best way forward may be to simply never lock the terminal. It can be moved anyways and the position + dimensions can already be reset with the button on the bottom right. I currently struggle to see the benefit in locking the dimensions. This would of course almost reduce the feature to a different default starting position of the terminal and a new button to reset the position and dimensions.