Add 'name, otherwise number' display option to "Icon text"

[madrxx]

I'm using Icon text "Names", Active style "Bordered, rounded" and the Inactive style "No decoration", and so new workspaces that haven't got a name yet appear invisible other than the padding they occupy. It would be nice to have an option to fallback. My issue title is proposing using the number, but I would be fine with a bullet point or anything.

[ruittenb]

Hello @madrxx,

The original version of Spaceman showed a dash - when no name was set, and it didn’t allow empty names. That’s why I removed it.

However, you’re right that leaving spaces unnamed when they are created is probably unexpected.

I’m considering giving new spaces a default name when they’re created, so that they’re visible right away. After that, the name can be cleared if the user wishes to do so. I am going to look into this.

[ruittenb]

The default name for new spaces was added in 1.19.4

https://github.com/ruittenb/Spaceman/releases/tag/v1.19.4

[madrxx]

It's not really an issue for me when I can set names immediately with the hotkey, but if I have 4 spaces open and I click the button to create a space and close Mission Control it will set the name to Space 5, and if I open Mission Control again and move it to position 3, it will still be called Space 5. This doesn't happen if you create and move it before closing Mission Control (it'd get the name Space 3 when Spaceman first becomes aware of that space). I guess this is fine, it's pretty predictable what's going to happen, but it could leave people with inaccurate messy number names that don't match the Desktop numbering of macOS

My proposal in this issue wasn't about affecting the actual saved name of the space though, but about adding another option in the IconText enum and an addition to the getIcon function that's just about display name at the point of rendering like else if displayStyle == .namesOtherwiseNumbers or something, which would show the space name if it's not empty (""), or otherwise show the workspace number. I can't say I've thought out this solution though, it may have its own weaknesses that you might have already preempted.

[ruittenb]

Hello @madrxx,

You're right that "Space 5" sticking after a reorder is not ideal. That said, the default name is meant as a temporary placeholder, to make the space visible until you assign your own name (e.g. via the hotkey, which you mentioned works well for you).

I'd like to keep the four display modes as they are — they're clean and orthogonal, and a hybrid "names, but fall back to numbers" mode would blur that. The root issue here is really about the default name, not about the display mode.

You mentioned that you have a workaround by creating spaces in Mission Control and reordering them before exiting it. They will then get the right positional name from the start.

I suspect that this workaround, in combination with the Quick Rename shortcut, will be sufficient for the time being.

I'm open to revisiting how default names work in the future (e.g., making them position-aware), but for now I'm going to close this as addressed by 1.19.4. Let me know if you run into anything else!

[madrxx]

I concede that adding an extra setting distinct from the "Names" setting, as I was previously suggesting, is probably a bad idea. However, I still think the latest change has multiple downsides, even though they don't particularly affect me.

• As already acknowledged, the placeholder names aren't updated if they're moved after creation - they will show the wrong space number.
• When set to "Numbers and names", auto-named items display as "3: Space 3" which is redundant. A person might expect an unnamed space to show simply as "3:" or "3". Having a compact numbers-only setup with only the occasional label now requires someone to remove the label manually from each new space they make.
• In general, space names prior to this update used to just be labels set by the user, which gave an intentionality to seeing a labelled item in the menubar context menu. Now, everything has a space name, which is potentially visually messier.

I think the preferable solution to all of this would be a reversion to the old behaviour of defaulting to blank space names, with names only being set through human intention. If a user sets 'Ioon text: Names', then the text to display for each space would be decided at update time. If the space name is "" then the Names option would just display the space number instead of the name (the logic for determining the space's number at display-time must already be implemented for the 'Numbers and names' option, so implementation shouldn't be too hard).