GNOME bug 119187 requests a new super-maximised window state where a window can be maximised across several Xinerama screens simultaneously, and a keybinding to toggle this state. Apparently you can do this in Windows XP by shift-clicking on the maximise button.
Since this is a new window state, it would require a change to the EWMH, which makes it nontrivial.
Would it be particularly useful to anyone out there?
Photo © skenme, cc-by.
You must be sick of hearing from me by now :) but I had a comment about this.
Reading the original bug closely, it seems that Windows XP doesn’t in fact support this – this is a feature added by the reporter’s graphics drivers, and as such wouldn’t be able to change the maximization model (which IIRC is much like Metacity’s).
I expect this is the sort of thing that can be accomplished with a libwnck script, assuming that libwnck exposes the Xinerama monitor layout, and usable space on each monitor (minus panels, etc.) The trickiest bit would be identifying all the possible rectangles that occupy the usable space on two or more monitors, then picking the largest such space.
I can’t remember when, but I’ve wanted this ability before… I always thought it’d be intuitive that if a window has a significant portion of itself in multiple monitors that it’d maximise in those monitors too, but really, I can’t think of any good justification for either of these features.
How would you handle screens with different heights or L-shaped layouts? It seems broken by design.
Fullscreening a window across several displays certainly would be useful.
I work on a dual screen machine. I’ve wanted this feature when viewing a side-by-side diff with a tool like Meld.