Enhancement Idea: Combination Horizontal and Vertical Split Screen in Lyx

[Louis Hiener]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for replying so quickly!

Taking your points/questions in reverse order: For my use case, one
scenario would be to be able to split the main window vertically (into left
and right halves) with the split being adjustable as it is in Lyx now
when you select View|Split View Into Left and Right Half. Then, it would be
great to be able to split either or both of the resulting vertical panes
horizontally into upper and lower sub-panes, again with the split being
adjustable as it is now in Lyx when you select View|Split View Into Upper
and Lower Half.
As to my working on implementing this myself and submitting a patch I'd be
willing to try. (However, I'm fairly new to GUI programming, as I work
mosting in the deeply embedded space) As I would have to learn the Lyx code
base, and how to implement this feature, I would not have anything for a
while, so no worries about my submitting a patch any time soon.😁 Thank you
for your time and consideration.

Kind regards,
Lou

On Tue, Nov 19, 2024 at 3:46 AM Scott Kostyshak <skostysh at lyx.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 09:37:45PM -0500, Louis Hiener wrote:
> > Good afternoon,
> >
> > I am an embedded systems and signal processing development engineer,
> > and have been using Lyx in my daily work since 2001. I use it both for
> > capturing my daily notes (technical and otherwise), as well as for
> > developing technical documentation.
> >
> > As average screen size has increased, I have likewise increased my use of
> > split screen modes. Alas, Lyx currently has a limitation that once you
> > split the screen in a given direction (vertically into left and right
> > panes, or horizontally into upper and lower panes), you can only further
> > split it in the same direction. What would be very useful (to me, at
> least)
> > would be the ability to split each split screen pane in either direction.
> > My primary use case (with a large landscape oriented display) would be to
> > split the screen vertically into left and right halves, and then split
> one
> > or both vertical half-panes horizontally into upper and lower sub-panes.
> > I'm envisioning something similar to VS Code's editor layout commands
> > (accessed from the View | Editor Layout menu as "Split Up", "Split Down",
> > "Split Left" and "Split Right"), or Emacs' ability to split any editor
> pane
> > horizontally by entering ctrl-x 2 or vertically by entering ctrl-x 3.
> >
> > Thank you for your time and consideration.
>
> Hi Lou,
>
> Thanks for writing! Your idea seems like a reasonable extension, and
> also is consistent with other programs (e.g., I know tiling window
> managers have this type of flexible splitting). That said, it is the
> first time I have heard of this request from a user, so I don't know if
> developers will place it as a high priority. I think the main question
> is: would you be willing to work on a patch? Don't work on it yet (since
> we should wait for the opinions of other developers).
>
> Also just to get a feeling for your use case, what would be your most
> common desired setup? 2x2 with equal sizes? Or split vertical and then
> split horizontal on one half but not the other? Hopefully your desired
> setup could be achieved with a simple "command-sequence". I forget, is
> it easy to use an LFUN to move the cursor from one view to another?
>
> Scott
>
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