The ^ > v game

[Suzaku]

^ is deserving of congratulations on the upcoming anniversary.
> is rather older than the average age of marriage.
v might practise a martial art.

[Jplus]

^ gets my gratitude
> dabbled in taiqi and aikido, long ago
v uses a tiling window manager

[Suzaku]

^ likes martial arts movies.
> doesn't actually know what a tiling window manager is.
v is going to explain what a tiling window manager is, in 30 words or fewer.

[Jplus]

A tiling window manager lets you cut up the screen of your computer in rectangles, where each rectangle is a window. In other words, no free positioning or overlapping allowed.

^ is curious
> loves movies by Zhang Yimou, both with and without martial arts
v will tell us about their favorite movie

[Suzaku]

^ will shortly receive thanks for the explanation.
> loves a lot of movies, but finds it hard to narrow it down to one "favourite". Going by "number of times seen in the cinema" it would be Mononoke-hime.
v loves live music.

A tiling window manager lets you cut up the screen of your computer in rectangles, where each rectangle is a window. In other words, no free positioning or overlapping allowed.

Thanks for that - is there a use case where that's better than a 'normal' windowing system?

[ratammer]

^ is a Ghibli fan, and I like that.
> does love live music, and is going to see her favourite band live in two weeks.
v knows who my favourite band are.

[Jplus]

^ is probably also a Ghibli fan
> does not know Ghibli
v recently ate something spicy

click for more on window managers

Thanks for that - is there a use case where [a tiling window manager is] better than a 'normal' windowing system?

It's a tradeoff. With a compositing (nowadays considered "normal") window manager, having windows side-by-side is fiddly because you have to drag them around and you can accidentally hide a part of one window by dragging another window over it. With a tiling window manager, you don't have those problems, but arranging windows is still fiddly because you have to remember and type complex keyboard commands.

[Suzaku]

^ should check out the Studio Ghibli animations; they're awesome (even some of the dubbed-into-English ones).
> had a kebab with pickled green chilis from a truck at an airshow last weekend.
v has never been to an airshow.

Ongoing conversation about window managers

Interesting. I get what you mean abount aligning windows (for simultaneous scrolling e.g.). I quite like the way Windows 11 handles it - If you drag a window to the edge of the screen it presents you with a set of layout ooptions (side by side, vertical, some three-or-more) and then allows you to pick which window you want to go to each 'frame' in the layout.

[Jplus]

^ uses Windows
> has been to a few airshows, though mostly for hot air balloons and never as an adult
v injured themself with a door once

window managers

I quite like the way Windows 11 handles it - If you drag a window to the edge of the screen it presents you with a set of layout ooptions (side by side, vertical, some three-or-more) and then allows you to pick which window you want to go to each 'frame' in the layout.

Basically, Windows is adding some tiling functionality on top of its otherwise compositing window manager. It's a trend in modern operating systems, all the "cool" ones seem to be offering something like this. It's never as elaborate as what hardcore tiling window manager users seem to like, though. My impression so far has been that whenever they show off their layout, it is always a complex Mondrian-esque situation.

I'm rather hybrid myself, by the way. I like to have two windows side-by-side filling the entire screen, if the screen is large enough. I could use the operating system's "tiling light" feature for it (like the Windows feature you just mentioned), but I don't because at least in KDE it seems to force the window manager into an assumption that I want all windows anchored to a specific division line. I like to occasionally have some other windows floating around, so I don't want to go all-out on the tiling approach.

[Suzaku]

^ knows way too much about window management systems.
> has pinched his finger in a door, but never really injured himself.
v likes wine.

[phillip1882]

^ likes dragons
> doesn't mind a sweet wine
v enjoys board games

[Jplus]

^ likes digits
> plays go as a hobby
v regularly works with large animals

[Suzaku]

^ knows the history of the QR code.
> does indeed like dragons, but doesn't work with animals at all.
v has a turbo-chraged car.

[Jplus]

^ is optimistic about my knowledge
> has a modest, second hand hatchback with a naturally aspirated engine from a Japanese brand
v practices a martial art

[Suzaku]

^ doesn't do a huge amount of driving.
> used to do aikido a very long time ago, but doesn't at the moment.
v is thinking about buying an electric car.

On the history of the QR code

At least supposedly, the QR code was initially envisaged when Masahiro Hara at Denso Wave was playing a game of go on his lunch break. They had been having issues with logistics because the various car parts they were dealing with all had multiple barcodes which had to be scanned, and over the game he came up with the idea of merging them into a single two-dimensional code.

[Jplus]

^ has a mysterious ability to guess driving habits
> practiced aikido, too, also a long time ago, at beginner level (5 kyu)
v knows the difference between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness

On the history of the QR code

I find that a nice, but also totally credible story. Does it mean that QR codes were the first two-dimensional codes? I think I've seen pyramid codes before I saw my first QR code, but that could easily be a coincidence on my part. I could also easily misremember it.