When I started to configure Sway, I found a lot of configurations online, but mostly were exactly the same. I too based my configuration on the given example, but disgressed quite a bit.
No $mod
I can’t see ever that I would use some other key for Sway functions than the Logo key of
my keyboard. So why have a variable and tenthousend (tm) times $mod in the config when
I can directly write Mod4 everywhere?
No hjkl and unneeded introduction
All the Sway configurations used something like
set $left h
set $down j
set $up k
set $right l
...
bindsym $mod+$left focus left
bindsym $mod+$down focus down
bindsym $mod+$up focus up
bindsym $mod+$right focus right
That way 4 perfectly usable character keys were used for functions that are
equally suited for cursor key. I removed that, and reused some of the
Logo+<character> combinations.
No weird indentation
Did you notice that above the set is not indented, but the bindsym is? I
have no clue why. The indentation doesn’t transport any hierarchy. Be done with
it!
Using run-or-raise
Sway doesn’t implement this, but I wrote a Python program for that. See my extra post for details.
Using types for input
The example config still uses named entities for input configuration. Here is line from the example:
input "2:14:SynPS/2_Synaptics_TouchPad" {
...
}
But … if you want to configure your keyboard layout (e.g. to German) and you don’t
know the exact name? You need to know first that you can run swaymsg -t get_inputs. Then
select the proper one and use it.
But it can be done easier, by using types:
input type:touchpad {
...
}
See man 5 sway-input for the available types. As the time of this writing,
it’s touchpad, pointer, keyboard, touch, tablet_tool, tablet_pad and switch.
And with that, my keyboard setup looks this:
input type:keyboard {
xkb_model "pc101"
xkb_layout "de(nodeadkeys)"
repeat_delay 300
repeat_rate 20
}
and will stay this even when my current “LITE-ON Technology USB NetVista Full Width Keyboard.” breaks.
Remove mouse cursor when typing
That would need an extra program on X11, but with Sway it’s built in:
input type:mouse {
dwt true
...
}
Background color
A lot of people load background images. I use however specifically a tiling window manager to maximize my screen estate. I even auto-start emacs and alacritty automatically when starting Sway. So I can do with a simply black screen:
output * {
background #000000 solid_color
...
}
No title bars except when needed
Normally, I know exactly my clients. So I can do without the title:
default_border pixel 1
But .. sometimes I need then. So I can toggle the title an and off. Sadly, Logo+t is already
used for the tabbed layout, so I used Logo+b:
bindsym Mod4+b border normal
bindsym Mod4+Shift+b border pixel 1
But, if I use Sway’s “mark client” feature to swap to windows, I want the title bar pop up. This is
because Sway writes [Mark] into the marked client’s title. Therefore, Logo+m first marks the client
and then turns its border (and therefore title) on:
bindsym Mod4+m mark --add --toggle Mark, border normal
bindsym Mod4+Shift+m swap container with mark Mark
There is currently no automation to un-do this visible title automatically, I do that manually. Maybe I can automate this with “criteria” trickery.
A waybar that isn’t one
Almost all monitors these days are very wide, but not so tall. However, almost all bars are horizontal oriented. I know that I can configure waybar also vertically. I even tried that, but I didn’t like the look of it.
And so I made a bar that isn’t one: it’s a overlay. Normally, I just see the date/time in the lower left window. Should I go into a specific mode (currently I only have the “resize” mode), then I’ll see that on the right side.
bar {
position bottom
status_command while date +'%d.%m.%y %H:%M:%S'; do sleep 1; done
mode overlay
workspace_buttons no
font pango:Sans 11
colors {
statusline #ffffff
background #ffffff10
inactive_workspace #32323200 #32323200 #5c5c5c
}
}
Run programs via menu
For some reasons, the example configurations had this on Logo+d. Why d? Remnant from dmenu?
I put it on Logo+r. r like run.
bindsym Mod4+r exec wofi --show=run --lines=25 --prompt=""
Application startup keys
bindsym Mod4+Return exec alacritty
bindsym Mod4+e exec ~/.config/sway/run-or-raise Emacs emacs
bindsym Mod4+w exec ~/.config/sway/run-or-raise Firefox firefox
The Logo+Return way to start a terminal I kept. It’s something of a common thing, even
AwesomeWM had this by default.
But I added two start/focus keys for Emacs and Firefox. I wrote details of this in an extra post.
Dangerous / unusual things via Shift
I already introduced above some Logo+Shift+… keybinding. And I omitted the boring ones, like moving a client to different workspace.
But mostly the Mod4+Shift+… are for “dangerous” or “unusual” things:
bindsym Mod4+Shift+d layout default
bindsym Mod4+Shift+q exec swaymsg exit # kill Sway
bindsym Mod4+Shift+k kill # kill client
bindsym Mod4+Shift+r reload
bindsym Mod4+Shift+s layout stacking
bindsym Mod4+Shift+t layout tabbed
Three characters (d, s and t) are to switch the layouts. Which I seldom
do, and that therefore might confuse me.
Killing a client is certainly dangerous, so I have it on Logo+Shift+k.
Even more dangerous is killing whole of Sway, it’s on Logo+Shift+q. Maybe I
should put in on Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, for some old X11 feeling?
Reloading without running sway --validate first can also be dangerous. Okay,
only annoying. AwesomeWM was much worse here. Still, I bound that to Logo+Shift+q.
Caveats
Probably you need to publish your blog now twice:
- publish blog
- fetch it’s URL, post Mastodon toot with it
- determine the Mastodon ID
- add the Mastodon ID to your frontmatter
- publish blog again
Another possible problem is: if you edit your Mastodon toot, then the ID of it will change.
But if you can life with that, you have a free, you’ve found a privacy respecting method of letting people comment on your posts.
Outro
All of the above is visible in my ~/.config/sway/config file.