Force TreeSheets to open a new file in a new window instead of tabbing?

Question

I am using the application TreeSheets, which is something like Excel on steroids. And I want to be able to view two "spreadsheets" side-by-side. Sadly, the application itself does not offer this as an option, and automatically puts each newly opened document in a new tab, without even the possibility to "arrange windows" within the main application window as known from Microsoft Office products.

Is there any trick to trick the application into starting a second time? Maybe something on a window manager level? (I am using KDE + xmonad; it is OK if it is a hack which happens to produce something ugly like a tab without visible menus or window decorations). Or maybe somehow forcing the program to start in a second, different process.

I don't need the two instances of the program to somehow "know" each other (as opposed to Excel spreadsheets where you can refer to the cells of a different spreadsheet file). All I need between the two is simple clipboard functionality for copying and pasting plain text.

I don't mind using inelegant tricks as long as it works. My current solution is to open the second spreadsheet on a second computer with Synergy; anything less painful is welcome.

Answer 1

X servers have no notion of tabs or open files, so as far as the X server is concerned, TreeSheets is doing its own business in one window. You will have to convince TreeSheets to open separate windows somehow.

If the application lacks this feature, your only recourse is to launch separate instances. How to do that depends on how TreeSheets detects a running instance.

If TreeSheets depends on a lock file somewhere under your home directory, try running it with a different home directory:

HOME=/home/rumtscho/treesheets-instances/1 treesheets second-file

You'll have to copy or symlink your configuration files under /home/rumtscho/treesheets-instances/1.

If TreeSheets insists in ignoring the HOME environment variable, you may have to run it as a different user.

If TreeSheets looks for another window that belongs to the same application, you may have to run different instances on a different display. First, try fooling it by running on a different display:

ssh -X localhost treesheets second-file

If that fails, try the heavy-handed way: run TreeSheets inside a VNC client.

If TreeSheets is using D-Bus, try unsetting the environment variable DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS.

There may be other ways, it all depends on how TreeSheets detects the running instance and communicates with it. Look for files that are created when you run TreeSheets, and what files it has open.

TreeSheets somefile &
# wait until the program has finished starting up
find ~/.[!.]* -mmin -5
lsof -p${!}