Compiz 'Place Windows' Matching for VLC and others

Tips, Tricks and Tutorials Tips & Tricks
#1

Using compiz to place windows is a topic by itself so this is more for experienced compiz users that already use this feature.

Problem: VLC main and playlist windows cannot be placed by separate rules in the Compiz “Place Windows” feature.

In the past, these 2 windows had different “role” attributes but not VLC in the 16.04 version. I’m screwed into dinking with VLC somehow if I want this feature - or so I thought!

Have you ever been happy to find a bug? I am! :joy:

Thanks to THIS WIKI I was able to discover the CCSM “grab” feature for “title” does not work right and this attribute contains just what I need to place the main and playlist VLC windows with separate rules.

It’s also nice that matching any part of the title happens to work, too.

For VLC, the matching for each window is:

(class=vlc) & title=VLC media player
(class=vlc) & title=Playlist

The buggy “grab” function incorrectly gets a title of “vlc” but you can see what the titles really are. Hope this helps someone.

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#2

Well, I did find out this isn’t perfect by any means. The placement works fine if the VLC window is not altered, like when playing audio.

However, in long-standing miscalculation errors usually associated with compiz window decoration, VLC calculates where to create the video area and moves the window there which is off target. Not far off but not perfect by any means.

If anyone knows how to correct this, I’d love to hear. :slight_smile: