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Change default launcher from Wofi to Walker #218
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Props for the detailed investigation!
Left a simple comment below
(Note: There's an open PR for migrating to Fuzzel: #202, so if this is picked that one can be closed.)
Walker also comes with emoji and clipboard menus by default. |
Pushed up some minor config updates and flipped over to launching via uwsm allowing the app to remain running and launch even faster. 🤘 Also removed the |
The currently released version of Walker, 0.13.0, crashes with a default/empty config on start up: Regarding performance or speed, I invite you to test piping a large directory to filter in Dmenu mode, with say 100,000 or 200,000 files. You'll see noticeable lag to display it.
This is a place where Fuzzel worked on performance to use a streaming approach, so now like
Walker could also stand to make documentation more discoverable. |
Pushed up a stop-gap fix for this for now until it's resolved. It appears to be a new bug introduce in v0.13.0 by a missing directory. Creating that directory solves the issue. Props to @anoldguy for pointing it out to me. @markstos Appreciate the input. I ran that test in my home directory which has 377,821 results to Piping this many files to a dmenu isn't a workload I really use a launcher for but it may be worth looking into the finder builtin plugin of walker to see how it handles it. It does load instantly and I suspect, has some optimizations around discovery and rendering of the file list tailored to that workload. cute-lLNrh.mp4Agreed on the docs. Docs are lacking and could be better |
This seems very promising. Just trying it now. The one thing is that there seems to be some delay before the walker selector appears. Both on application launcher and power menu. It's not totally instant. Is that an animation thing? |
Just tried the fuzzel version. It does feel ever so marginally faster, but it's probably not a big deal. This version here nails the aesthetics and is able to hide the search bar like we want. |
Running walker as a service solves the startup delay. So we should find a way to do that. When I just ran it like that in the terminal, though, it changed the themes. |
Need a theme change for the new catppuccin latte too. And should try to convert any other themes we have in ~/.config/omarchy/themes if that's at all a possibility. |
hmm, maybe I'm thick, but I can't see how to actually activate the calc or web search services? |
slash will do the trick for other services. you can also have dedicated maps |
Ahh, I see. They're all hidden under /. Makes sense. |
@dhh Updates have been pushed. The Be sure to @abenz1267 hooked us up with a way to reference theme files outside of the user's That leaves us with a very clean setup that looks like this.
Users are then also free to create new themes, plugins, etc. in |
@markstos - While streaming is a good suggestion, I do not think this performance issue is important now. Tried that with |
already done :P. Loads all 430k in about 500ms. (fuzzel takes several seconds? maybe just the counter not keeping up). |
@@ -7,8 +7,7 @@ show_power_menu() { | |||
\u200D Relaunch | |||
\u2060 Restart | |||
\u2063 Shutdown" | |||
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local selection=$(echo -e "$menu_options" | wofi --show dmenu --width 150 --height 195 -O alphabetical --style ~/.config/wofi/select.css) | |||
local selection=$(echo -e "$menu_options" | walker --dmenu --theme dmenu_150) |
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Would be nice if going forward there was a way to pass width in on command line, so we don't have to make themes per menu size.
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Agreed. Will open an issue to hopefully get this as an enhancement down the line and allow cleanup.
@dhh history is removed. |
Not a blocker, but I noticed you can't use pg up/down or home/end to navigate the list. |
We also lost the ability to silently filter lists, like the theme selector, where the search bar was hidden but still functional with Wofi. Also not a blocker, but I liked it. |
Can validate that it is fast. Just installed |
This is a fantastic upgrade. A lot faster, and a runway for folks wanting more Raycast like functionality. We should add a manual page on how to turn more stuff on for folks who want to use all the features. |
@ryanrhughes @abenz1267 @dhh Should we do something special with this? Walker Docs » Newly installed or removed applications aren't shown / are still shown This can become really annoying while ricing will happen. How fast is it without the cache? Should we... ask Something like this? [Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Remove
Type = Package
Target = *
[Action]
Description = Cleaning up Walker application.json cache
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/bash -c 'rm /home/$SUDO_USER/.cache/applications.json &> /dev/null || true' |
it's not released yet... |
The cache is disabled by default. When running as service it's not needed anyways, since Walker watches the filesystem for changes to desktop files and acts accordingly. |
Over the past week or so, some of the quirks of Wofi have become really noticeable so I went on a bit of a launcher bender in pursuit of the Goldilocks of launchers.
As a part of this, I looked at a ton but formally evaluated (used, built themes for, etc.) Tofi, Rofi, Fuzzel, Ulauncher, and Walker.
TLDR; After spending a ton of time with a bunch of launchers, I believe that Walker is the only Hyprland first launcher that is fast, not overly complex, and is extendable. As such, it should be the default in Omarchy.
Problems
To begin with, let's outline the problems I've seen with Wofi.
It's slow

Since creating the screenshot tool, I've used the menus for that workflow A LOT. In doing so, the load time and render stuttering of Wofi becomes kind of obvious. Feels a lot like the minor delay on MacOS between workspace transitions. Seems fine until you try to use it a lot. You can even see it loading the list in when it comes up still.
It scales down when notifications arrive

For whatever reason, any time a notification comes in, the open Wofi dialog resizes itself and gets a little messed up in the process. Running it as a normal window does not have this issue, but as I've understood it, that's also not really meant for Wayland either.
You can't disable search

We use the launcher for menus a lot in Omarchy. One of the places this issue is most prominent is the power menu. With Wofi, you cannot disable the search, so even though it's hidden, pressing a key will still filter your list. I know this because I will instinctively hit
j
often, and then my whole list disappears until I hitbackspace
.The Goldilocks State
Launchers are kind of a personal thing and some people would prefer something as robust as Raycast while others just want a simple menu. I believe that the best launcher to be the default for Omarchy users should:
Why the others didn't take the crown
I'll speedball through these but essentially:
Walker
Walker is built as a laucher specifically with speed and Hyprland in mind by our very own @abenz1267. It's fast, and simple when you want it, but also with a robust extension / plugin capability that will allow a really great foundation to build upon for launcher-based items. Additional bonus is that @abenz1267 is a part of the Omarchy community as well and was even so kind as to push up a couple of small tweaks that made making everything work with Omarchy that much easier.
Launches fast (Can even be faster running as a service)

Doesn't have scaling interactions

Can disable search for use as just a menu (I'm pushing lots of buttons)

Themes
Catpuccin

Everforest

Gruvbox

Kanagawa

Matte Black

Nord

Rose Pine

Tokyo Night
