Testers with multiple monitors needed

[ballfresno]

Is there an option in Calibre to tell it to *not* restore its position at all and simply appear where the window manager would put a totally new window? I use a tiling window manager on Linux and it's sometimes a little annoying (but not exactly mission critical... ;-)) having the window appear elsewhere than where I am.

[kovidgoyal]

tiling window managers are entirely responsible for application placement, the application has no control over it. Indeed in X11/wayland applications have no control over window size/placement at all, the window manager just takes the size and position requested by the application as a hint, where the window finally ends up is upto the window manager.

[ballfresno]

Yes, this is true; what I'm asking is to turn off Calibre's requests for size and position, if possible.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

tiling window managers are entirely responsible for application placement, the application has no control over it. Indeed in X11/wayland applications have no control over window size/placement at all, the window manager just takes the size and position requested by the application as a hint, where the window finally ends up is upto the window manager.

Which is good. Because if you changed resolution or screen model or number/layout of screens since application was last run it could be entirely outside the view. There is a mouse grab combo key to hold down if the window is still visible but just no title bar. You can map it in Keyboard Settings to Windows Logo key which otherwise isn't useful. As an aside I map Caps Lock to Compose (disable Caps Lock and set both Shift for Caps Lock, either cancels, first). I used to Alt Space and arrow keys on Windows to move windows where title bar was lost.

P.S. I discovered the desktop "Panels" autohide just moves them almost past the viewport, so if one is on the right and you add a 2nd screen on the right, that screen has to be diagonally just above or below total length of the Panel or you see it on the 2nd screen.

Some applications don't remember and always open on default screen. Some always re-open on the same monitor if multiple screens.
I've found multiple monitors on Windows and Linux to be tricky since forever (maybe since 1998) so I now use a single 23" 4K screen as there are so many problems.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

Yes, this is true; what I'm asking is to turn off Calibre's requests for size and position, if possible.

No, there isnt.

[Atherton25]

I have 4 monitors running currently (and somewhat oddly aligned with 2 on the left, one very large center and one vertically to the right). The first three are 4k monitors, the one to the right is a 1440p. I spent about 20 min today working with it trying to get anything to go wrong. Tried various configurations with the program and windows within on different monitors. Happy to report that it always came up where I left it and have no issues at this time.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No, there isnt.

How does the 'Remember last used window size and position' work in ebook-viewer? I'm guessing theres a reason it can't be adapted to various windows/dialogs in the Calibre main program.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

How does the 'Remember last used window size and position' work in ebook-viewer? I'm guessing theres a reason it can't be adapted to various windows/dialogs in the Calibre main program.

There's no reason it cant be implemented its just not something I care to implement. I use a tiling window manager as well, and I see no ill-effects from calibre requesting the window manager for size and position. In fact without that, the window manager would actually have less information about where and how to place the window, leading to potentially worse placement. Not to mention that for dialogs which are "floating" it would have no idea at all how to size and place them.

[kovidgoyal]

@Atherton25: Glad to hear it.

[CRussel]

Ran the beta on my laptop environment. Windows 11; internal display 3240x2160@200% scaling, external 4k display, 3840x2160@150% scaling. Worked fine, even across the two monitors. However, when I put it on the second virtual desktop, and closed it, then re-opened it, it opened on the main virtual desktop, not respecting the choice of the second virtual desktop. It did, however, open in the same location on the monitor in the first desktop.

[kovidgoyal]

@CRussel: Qt doesn't have support for multiple virtual desktops, in Qt a "virtual desktop" is just a large rectangle containing the geometries of all monitors assigned to the virtual desktop. There can be only one such. I think what you are referring to is more like a "workspace" (i.e. a collection of windows that can all be switched to with a single key press/mouse action). Restoring to these is extremely platform specific and not supported in Qt.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@CRussel: Qt doesn't have support for multiple virtual desktops, in Qt a "virtual desktop" is just a large rectangle containing the geometries of all monitors assigned to the virtual desktop. There can be only one such. I think what you are referring to is more like a "workspace" (i.e. a collection of windows that can all be switched to with a single key press/mouse action). Restoring to these is extremely platform specific and not supported in Qt.

Fair enough, I'm sure Windows does it differently from anyone else. And I'm not surprised that Qt doesn't support it. But I did want to make sure you knew it had been tested. And should you ever want to bypass Qt and make it work with multiple desktops/workspaces, I would love it. Oh, and I'd test it. But I admit, it's an edge case. Not sure how many people use it, but I latched on to it very early to keep some sort of organization in my very busy desktop. (I envy @Atherton25 his setup!)

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No, there isnt.

Okay, no worries; thank you.

[kovidgoyal]

Uploaded a new beta with a fix for the crashing bug reported by theducks.