#+TITLE: perspective-exwm

A couple of tricks and fixes to make using [[https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm][EXWM]] and [[https://github.com/nex3/perspective-el][perspective.el]] a better experience.

* Installation
While this package isn't available anywhere but here, you can install it directly from the repo, e.g.:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package perspective-exwm
  :straight (:host github :repo "SqrtMinusOne/perspective-ewxm.el"))
#+end_src
Or clone the repository, add the package to the =load-path= and load it with =require=.

The package provides a minor mode, =perspective-exwm-mode=, which is meant to be loaded before =exwm-init=. For instance, if you use =use-package=:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package exwm
  :config
  ...
  (perspective-exwm-mode)
  (exwm-init))
#+end_src

* Usage and details
- =perspective-exwm-mode=\\
  The mode does a couple of things:
  - advises away a bug with half-killing the current perspective when closing a floating window. I haven't tested this as thoroughly, so run =M-x perspective-exwm-revive-perspectives= if the problem arises anyway.
  - fixes a bug with running =persp-set-buffer= on an EXWM buffer that was moved between workspaces by advising =persp-buffer-in-other-p=.
  - adjusts the name of the inital perspective in the new workspace. It tries to get the name from the =perspective-exwm-override-initial-name= variable and fallbacks to =main-<index>=.

  For the last point, I have the following in my configuration:
  #+begin_src emacs-lisp
  (setq perspective-exwm-override-initial-name
      '((0 . "misc")
        (1 . "core")
        (2 . "browser")
        (3 . "comms")
        (4 . "dev")))
  #+end_src

  This also serves a purpose, because otherwise there are issues with multiple perspectives sharing the same scratch buffer.
- =M-x perspective-exwm-cycle-exwm-buffers-forward=, =perspective-exwm-cycle-exwm-buffers-backward=\\
  Cycles EXWM buffers in the current perspective.

  [[./img/cycle-buffers.png]]

  The buffer highlighted in yellow is the current one, the buffer highlighted in blue is shown in another window of the perspective so it will be omitted from the cycle.

  Set =perspective-exwm-get-exwm-buffer-name= to customize the displayed name, by default it's =exwm-class-name=.

- =M-x perspective-exwm-switch-perspective=\\
  Select a perspective from the list of all perspectives on all workspaces.

  [[./img/switch-perspective.png]]
- =M-x perspective-exwm-copy-to-workspace=\\
  Copy the current perspective to another EXWM workspace.
- =M-x perspective-exwm-move-to-workspace=\\
  Move the current perspective to another EXWM workspace.
- =perspective-exwm-assign-windows=\\
  A handy function to move the current window to a given workspace and/or perspective. Example usage:
  #+begin_src emacs-lisp
  (defun my/exwm-configure-window ()
    (interactive)
    (pcase exwm-class-name
      ((or "Firefox" "Nightly")
       (perspective-exwm-assign-window
        :workspace-index 2
        :persp-name "browser"))
      ("Alacritty"
       (perspective-exwm-assign-window
        :persp-name "term"))
      ((or "VK" "Slack" "Discord" "TelegramDesktop")
       (perspective-exwm-assign-window
        :workspace-index 3
        :persp-name "comms"))))

  (add-hook 'exwm-manage-finish-hook #'my/exwm-configure-window)
  #+end_src