presel_dir on a hidden node is no-op

[samaingw]

Edit: after further investigation, the issue seems to be on presel_dir and not on transfer_node, text edited accordingly.

TL;DR: presel_dir on hidden node doesn't work because node is vacant. However one can transfer to a hidden window, so to me it makes sense to allow presel_dir on hidden nodes too.

AFAIK, this is not something that popped up in the issues (opened and closed), sorry if I'm duplicating !

Context

I come from dwm, and sometimes I lack its features, so I'm developping external tools that calls bspc to mimic dwm behaviour (or at least the subset I'm using) inside bspwm. And I launch them only when I miss them.

From dwm, I import tag management and dynamic main/remainder tiling layout. I'm happy with my tag management workflow, I'm currently working on the main/remainder tiling.

What I'm doing

To that end, I maintain a tree structure like this:

        R
      /   \
     /     \
    /       \
   o         \
  / \         o
w1   o       / \
    /  \   w6   o
   w2   o      / \
       /  \   w7  w8
      w4   w5      [...]

@/1 is the root of my "main", @/2 of my "remainder".
When a node in main gets hidden (say w2), I pull one from remainder. In that example I grab w6 and put it south of w5.
However, if w6 is already hidden, I grab the first node that is visible, pulling everything until I reach that node.
So if w6 is hidden but w7 is visible, I transfer w6 south of w5, and w7 south of w6.

The problem

• I can transfer a visible node to a visible node
• I can transfer a hidden node to a visible node
• I cannot transfer a node to a hidden node using a preselected direction

It seems that presel_dir doesn't work on a hidden node.

I think my issue comes from this:

bspwm/src/messages.c

Lines 365 to 368 in af3bd8b

	if (trg.node == NULL || trg.node->vacant) {
	fail(rsp, "");
	break;
	}

The question

The vacant flag covers floating, hidden and fullscreen.
I perfectly understand that trying to tile/transfer/presel_dir on fullscreen and floating windows makes no sense.

However, I think it makes sense to allow transfer/presel_dir on hidden nodes. Thoughts on that ?

[samaingw]

Steps to reproduce:

Make a desktop like this:

  R             +-------+------+
 / \            |       |  w2  |
w1 /\    <==>   |  w1   +------+
  w2 w3         |       |  w3  |
                +-------+------+

• Testing transferring a hidden node to a visible node: OK

bspc node @/2/1 -g hidden && bspc node @/1 -p south && bspc node @/2/1 -n @/1 && bspc node @/1/2 -g hidden

The result is what's expected:

   R             +------+------+
  / \            |  w1  |      |
 /\  w3   <==>   +------+  w3  |
w1 w2            |  w2  |      |
                 +------+------+

• Testing transferring a visible node to a hidden node: KO

bspc node @/1 -g hidden; bspc node @/1 -p south; bspc node @/2/1 -n @/1; bspc node @/1/1 -g hidden

Result:

   R             +--+--+------+
  / \            |  |  |      |
 /\  w3   <==>   +w1|w2|  w3  |
w1 w2            |  |  |      |
                 +--+---+-----+

Replacing the paths to w1 with its node id doesn't solve the issue either.