Opinions
In Zorin OS 18, there is built in tiling configuration. This is a great feature and I love that you can configure this out of the box.
However, I really love auto tiling. And the auto tiling you can enable for Zorin OS has a few problems.
Issues with auto tiling
It says on the description that "Automatically tile new windows to the best tile" and this is what it does.
When you create a new window it will automatically tile it to your current tile layout.
But that is all it will do.
Sometimes it just stops working
There are some scenarios where this will stop working. Eg: having the "Zorin Appearence" application open and floating will stop all auto tiling.
Cycling tiling layouts
When using tiling it's mainly so I can be more keyboard driven between windows.
And there is a handy shortcut you can use to cycle tiling layouts for the workspace you are in.
However, this is practically useless.
When cycling tiling layout it doesn't actually apply anything to actively tiled windows. It will just change the underlying tiling layout for the workspace and that's it.
What I would expect
A real example of What I think should happen. I have 2 windows tiled half and half. Then if I wanted to add a third window, I would swap to the 3 thirds layout (or a half and 2 quarter layout).
The windows retile to best fit, and I can open/move a windows to the new free tile.
What actually happens
In practice cycling layouts will not move the active windows at all.
They will still be "tiled", so even if you had windows on a previous tiled layout, and made space for a new tile. Often the partially offset previous tilled windows will block the new windows from tiling.
The only way to counteract this is to change tiling layout. Focus each tiled window and use the move tiled window shortcuts to make them go to their own tiles again.
Cursor warping
This may be easy to fix, but it would be really handy to have an option for cursor warping to focused windows. It makes using tiled windows more seamless.
Fixes
Cycling tiling layouts
A simple mitigation to the Auto tiling annoyances is to give an option to retile all the tiled windows based on their tile index to the new layout. And if there are more tiled windows than tiles, just float and center them.
Allow for dynamic tiling
This is a bit harder but adding some dynamic tiling for auto tiling would be a nice to have. Even as simple as just fractional sharing of the screen space would be really nice.
Option for cursor warping
The ability to allow cursor warping when using keyboard shortcuts to focused windows.
any keyboard shortcut that will focus/open a window should make the cursor go to the center of that window.
eg: directional tiled focus change, Switching workspaces, Closing windows, etc.