Reading https://codeberg.org/river/river/src/branch/master/protocol/river-layout-v3.xml it seems to me that what I want to do is actually not possible in river, even writing a custom layout manager…
IIUC the protocol works like this: river asks “how should I layout N windows in HxW screen?” and the layout replies “window1: H1xW1 at offset X1,Y1; window2: H2xW2 …”, so there is no way for the layout manager to identify specific windows and, in my use case, put all the text editors on the left side of the screen etc.
Did you have some other approach in mind when you suggested river? (I may very well be over-complicating things and not seeing a more straightforward solution)
But it has no ads