Fresh off of adding support for automatic window snapping, the developers behind GNOME Shell’s most configurable and feature-packed window tiling extension are back with another update.
Tiling Shell v15.1 introduces support for smart border radius.
This is one a small sounding feature but it has a big impact on the way borders (which are an optional feature) are drawn around focused application windows, either in tiled mode or when free-floating on he desktop:
Domenico Ferraro, the chief developer of the extension, explains the impetus in tackling this:
“In GNOME, different windows may have different border radius. Drawing a border around the focused window is hard because it is not possible to know the window border radius. All the existing extensions just draw a border with a static value, making the UI less polished.”
To be clear here: the inconsistencies sometimes seen in border radius on GNOME isn’t GNOME’s fault (modern GTK4/libadwaita apps use consistent corners). Rather, it’s the fact most of us run an inconsistent mix of apps using different toolkits, GTK versions, themes etc.
So in an effort to bring order, Tiling Shell now “dynamically” computes the border radius of windows on launch. It reads the correct radius value and applies it so borders match the window. Like other features in the add-on, smart border radius is entirely optional too.
What’s especially neat is this new radii-radar (as I’m choosing to call it) picks up any tweaks to the roundness a user makes through other GNOME Shell extensions (such as the one to round bottom corners for legacy GTK apps) or themes.
Other changes in Tiling Shell 15.1:
- Focused window border now scales per a the monitor’s scaling factor
- Focused window’s border now sits above the actual border (previously inside)
- Keybindings added to focus next/previous window
- New workspaces will (try to) use same layout as last workspace
And, adding something I’ve previously mentioned would be super handy:
- Indicator menu now has button to open preferences
Et voila:
Fixes tackle snafus with focusing windows with keyboard shortcuts after a computer resumes from suspend; the snap assistant threshold for trigging has an increased maximum value; and a multi-monitor quirk where apps sometimes showed on the wrong screen.
In all, another terrific update to this nifty workflow enhancer.
Tiling Shell is free, open source software that works with any Linux distribution equipped with GNOME 42 or later (i.e., you can use it on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and above).