So I have been using fluxbox for 7 years now and it does nearly everything I need. There is one feature that I have been looking for that I have not seen in any window manager that I know: the ability to group windows so that they raise and lower together. Yes I have virtual desktops, but I really, really want to be able to link the terminal window I use to test a file I am editing, to the vim window where I am editing said file.
Does anyone know of a window manager that can group windows so that they raise together? Or perhaps something more like: 'when I raise this window also raise these windows.'
Obviously you need a bit more logic to deal with the ordering of windows within a raise group, but this seems like a feature that is completely missing from all current window managers.
Honestly, I've always wanted a window-manager that mimicked Visual Studio's pin/dock slide-outs. That is, you can dock any task to any edge of the screen, and each edge can be sub-divided into panes. Each pane has multiple tabs, and each pane can be set to auto-hide or can be "pinned" to always-visible, which causes everything else to resize.
It's a rather complicated approach, but I've never found any better multi-tool layout, since it's enormously Fitt's-law-friendly while allowing me to both hide everything or bring in oodles of tool panes quickly and easily as needed.
I haven't tried them (just found out about them now), and I know it's not exactly what you're looking for, but there are WMs that allow you to have nesting virtual workspaces. It could be an approximation.
Cinnamon is slowly moving in that direction I'd say. It has the ability to snap a window to the edge and have the dynamic-desktop size shrink to accomodate it (i.e. hitting maximize will only use the remaining unsnapped space).
I suspect it could be extended to use this to start setting up tiles automatically.
Does anyone know of a window manager that can group windows so that they raise together? Or perhaps something more like: 'when I raise this window also raise these windows.'
Obviously you need a bit more logic to deal with the ordering of windows within a raise group, but this seems like a feature that is completely missing from all current window managers.