logoalt Hacker News

etothet • today at 2:56 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

Related, I saw a project named "TrellisWM" posted on Twitter the other day. The developer calls it a "Fractal Window Manager". Looks interesting!

https://x.com/DanFessler/status/2109901960132305311


Replies

hmokiguess • today at 3:47 PM

oh damn this is incredible, this idea is what I always wanted, I prefer that over Niri and Niri support for macOS is not where to my liking (I tried a few and they're all clunky and/or don't support multiple displays nicely)

➕ show 1 reply
leetrout • today at 3:06 PM

$80 for a window manager (or $24 / year) ... yeesh. Maybe I will try it when I get fed up with rectangle.

➕ show 1 reply
fellowniusmonk • today at 6:11 PM

The problem with windows and spaces (which the fractal dives in this video are) that you jump to, is every time you lose context and relationship. People try to fix this with these little "minimaps" that number your spaces, but that is also a loss of context, then you have visual zooming interfaces which are completely lawless and just create total chaos.

Fractals are great, but no matter how closely I look at a fractal branch on a fractal limb on a fractal tree I can see the prior item, the parent limb, the trunk.

Even when moving through a street, context "jumps" don't occur but the further I get away from visual marker context (like in zig zag alleyways) the easier it is to get lost.

If I hike on a mountain and I am half way up, I can look at the rocks at my feet but I instantly regain my context by looking up, in a continuous, non jumping way, and little trees or features in the landscape help me know where I am.

Every jump in an interface, every popup out of context invokes the doorway effect.

This is fine, sometimes you need a blank slate, but moving to a new room and deleting context should be a conscious choice not something that happens while you are operating on the same project/effort.