[HN Gopher] AltTab - Windows alt-tab on macOS
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AltTab - Windows alt-tab on macOS
Author : DerekBickerton
Score : 90 points
Date : 2022-05-10 18:07 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (alt-tab-macos.netlify.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (alt-tab-macos.netlify.app)
| stu_k wrote:
| Looks great! I've currently use https://contexts.co/ but might
| switch over for the thumbnails
| vosper wrote:
| I recently found an old app called Snap which automatically
| assigns apps to Cmd + number depending on their order in the dock
| (or you can manually assign them).
|
| I have Chrome as the first app in the dock, so it's Cmd+1. Slack
| is second and is Cmd+2.
|
| It's so simple. I love it. I tried to achieve the same with
| Automator but it was unreliable.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/snap/id418073146?mt=12
| lelandfe wrote:
| Wow, this was last updated in 2012. That's pretty incredible if
| it still works - the dev won the "no breaking changes in a
| decade" jackpot in API pachinko.
| chadlavi wrote:
| > Built-in [?] command + - tab: Only shows apps, not windows
| (note: can press down to see window of selected app)
|
| I've never actually needed to use it, but that sounds like the
| default can do this without taking your hands off the keyboard?
| randomluck040 wrote:
| That's right but it's not possible without taking your hand
| from the mouse since you need to put your fingers on the arrow
| keys. I know that everyone is rather keyboard-centric on HN but
| some tasks require mouse usage. Also it's a simple left hand
| task on windows, I'd need both hands to reach the same result.
| nomel wrote:
| I use HyperSwitch, by the creator of HyperDock, for this purpose.
| I switched to Mac for my job.
| SparkyMcUnicorn wrote:
| I used to use HyperSwitch, but it has bugs and doesn't work on
| all applications for some reason. It also doesn't work on M1
| macs if I'm recalling correctly.
|
| Made the switch to alt-tab, and glad I did.
| therealmarv wrote:
| Seems many people don't know:
|
| [?] Command + ` to switch between windows of same program
| balfirevic wrote:
| That's not comparable to what this utility does (and it also
| supports Cmd + ` and does it better than built in MacOS
| behaviour).
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| I already posted this in response to another comment but you
| might be interested to now that I ported that functionality to
| Windows: https://neosmart.net/blog/2017/easy-window-switcher/
| billyhoffman wrote:
| I switched to the Mac about 10 years ago. The biggest pain point
| I haven't really been able to solve (before this app) is
| switching between 2 specific windows in 2 different applications.
| On Windows this was as easy as ALT+tab
|
| Perfect example, I'm looking in Safari, and entering some numbers
| in Excel. I have multiple windows open for each app. I'm in
| Excel, and CMD+tab to switch to Safari, and all the Safari
| windows come forward, coving up my Excel window. CMD +` only
| cycles the windows of the current app. There is no easy way to
| bounce back and forth between a specific Excel window and a
| specific Safari window. Instead I have to Hide or rearrange my
| windows so that switch apps doesn't complete cover the windows I
| want to see
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| This is nice. However, once Alt-Tab is activated, it would be
| nice to be able to hold Alt and use the ` key to cycle through
| windows from right to left, instead of left to right (same
| behavior as Command-Tab on MacOS).
| Starmina wrote:
| Press shift !:)
| alin23 wrote:
| I use this in combination with my rcmd app
| (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd) and I can finally say I've reached
| the perfect app/window switching setup on macOS.
|
| Instant app switching with rcmd + visual window switching for
| multi-window apps like Xcode, Sublime Text etc.
|
| It's similar to what I had on Windows with WinKey+number and
| their integrated AltTab thumbnails but better since I don't have
| to count the apps in the taskbar to know which number to press,
| and I can AltTab only through the current app windows if I want.
| nsonha wrote:
| given this isn't free anyway, you could have both behaviors
| with a single app Witch (https://manytricks.com/witch)
| lelandfe wrote:
| Woah, rebinding the right command key. I'll need to retrain my
| brain to get used to it, but this is really, really cool.
| Thanks!
| alin23 wrote:
| It was a pretty much useless key for me at first, but seeing
| how highly accessible it is for my right thumb, I prototyped
| rcmd in a day. I got used to it very fast. My colleague also
| got used to it in the same day, so we thought to share it.
|
| Most people trying out rcmd tell me that in less than a day
| it has become something they can't go back from so it feels
| pretty nice to know I've improved at least a few workflows
| ^_^
| behnamoh wrote:
| I wish something similar to Autohotkey was available for mac.
| Karabiner comes cloes, but it's not quite the same thing.
| alin23 wrote:
| How about skhd? https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd
|
| I use it to simply bind hotkeys to shell commands in a single
| config file.
|
| Given the full power of the shell, you can even use
| AppleScript (through osascript) if you want to automate the
| UI/system like AutoHotkey does.
|
| It can also send key events using the -k flag so you can
| remap keys to other key combinations.
| philsnow wrote:
| I haven't used Autohotkey or skhd but I use hammerspoon for
| any kind of macos UI automation and it's pretty great, and
| uses lua instead of applescript.
| alin23 wrote:
| Oh yeah, Hammerspoon is a much better alternative to
| AutoHotkey, how could I forget about it.
|
| It can even create simple and quite useful UIs, here's an
| example of someone using it to create a stack visualizer
| for the yabai window manager: https://user-
| images.githubusercontent.com/1683979/90967233-0...
|
| [1] https://github.com/AdamWagner/stackline
| PainfullyNormal wrote:
| jolux wrote:
| A recommendation, apropos of this discussion on window
| management: three finger swipe up on the trackpad for Mission
| Control/Expose if you need a specific window. I know trackpads
| are below most programmers but I've found this is faster than
| hammering alt-tab on Windows if you have a lot of stuff open.
| Still use Cmd-tab and Cmd-` most of the time though.
| jaywalk wrote:
| You know you can click on the window you want while holding
| Alt+Tab, right?
| jolux wrote:
| Yes, but I still prefer Mission Control. Possibly because I
| think in terms of apps, not windows.
| ars wrote:
| Anyone know how get Focus-follows-mouse to work in MacOS?
|
| It kind of works in the terminal, but only partially, and not in
| any other application.
| monksy wrote:
| The more I use macs, which I'm forced to at work, the less I like
| them and the more I feel like Apple just really hates their
| users. They want to dictate how you use these and what it looks
| like. (I.e. smart quotes.. as a dev that fucks up everything, alt
| tab, annoying normal user interactions alternatives)
| cfn wrote:
| This is great! Coming from Windows I am always annoyed when cmd-
| tab does not restore a minimized window in MacOS. I don't really
| understand the logic of it. If the app window is minimized it is
| obvious (to me) that it should be restored when I cmd-tab to it.
| Why doesn't it do this?
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| I wrote the opposite: an implementation of macOS' cmd-` (switch
| between open windows of the same application) for Windows:
| https://neosmart.net/blog/2017/easy-window-switcher/
| sarahdellysse wrote:
| Oh wow, this is great! I have tried other window-based
| application switchers but never really liked how they worked. I
| understand that macOS has a app-centric model but I find that
| switching between windows works so much better for me.
| chrstphrknwtn wrote:
| What's wrong with Command + Tab?
| maztaim wrote:
| Nothing's wrong with it, unless you prefer alt-tab to switch
| windows. I personally prefer to choose my own adventure.
| nomel wrote:
| It switches between applications, not windows.
| mmerlin wrote:
| It's inefficient after a decade or more of AltTabbing in
| Windows becomes a muscle memory that is thought-flow breaking
| when having to un-train that automatic keyboard reflex.
| randomluck040 wrote:
| Imagine you're on a German keyboard and want to switch between
| Firefox windows. In that case I need to do cmd + shift + `
| which need two hands since ` is in the upper right corner.
| That's the only use for me: switch between windows of the same
| app easier.
| therealmarv wrote:
| you mean [?] Command + `
| gms7777 wrote:
| Some feedback from a mac user (if this is your project): The only
| description of the functionality on the page is "brings the power
| of Windows's "alt-tab" window switcher to macOS." As someone that
| hasn't used Windows in years, this doesn't actually tell me
| anything. What does this do that command-tab and command-` don't
| already do in mac?
| SOTGO wrote:
| It eliminates the hierarchy of windows being necessarily part
| of an application. Alt-Tab on windows shows only open windows
| ordered by last time as the focused window with no grouping by
| application.
| jeffbee wrote:
| It doesn't really eliminate it because you are still going to
| have to switch modes to navigate a tabbed interface within a
| window.
| SparkyMcUnicorn wrote:
| I started using this to provide customization rather than being
| Windows-like.
|
| It's pretty customizable, so everyone's experience and
| preferences will be different but here are some of mine.
|
| 1. Command + Tab > Cycle all windows, within all spaces, on
| active screen (rather than all screens).
|
| 2. Command + ` > Same as above, but only for the focused/active
| application.
|
| 3. Customized size of thumbnail, font, items per row, and
| overall screen real estate.
|
| 4. Mouse location = active screen
|
| 5. Hidden windows show at the end of the cycle
| jasonlotito wrote:
| Pretty sure this also doesn't bring windows to the front when
| selected, either.
| mort96 wrote:
| One absolutely huge limitation of macOS (IMO) is that cmd-`
| doesn't let you switch to windows on other workspaces. That
| means, if you have, say, one terminal window on one workspace
| and one on the other, there's no easy way to switch to the
| terminal window on the other workspace.
| pmontra wrote:
| This is very subjective matter and any of us would like our
| own customized desktop. You probably organize your workspace
| in a different way than I do. I associate virtual desktops
| with customers on my Linux machine plus one for me. (Those
| should be workspaces on a Mac.) I have one terminal open in
| every desktop, one editor window in every desktop, one
| Firefox window in every desktop plus whatever I need for a
| given customer. I really don't want to alt tab to windows in
| a different desktop. It has no purpose in my setup because I
| want to stay within the boundaries of the customer I'm
| working for. I'm pretty sure this is the default behavior but
| I can bet there is a way to tweak it. Plenty of extensions to
| customize the GNOME desktop.
| klodolph wrote:
| Use cmd-tab, and while holding command, press up/down arrow
| on an app. This will show all windows open in that app,
| regardless of workspace. Minimized windows will be at the
| bottom.
| krferriter wrote:
| It enables you to actually switch between windows, not between
| applications. If you have 3 windows of Chrome open, on Mac if
| you alt-tab to it it raises all 3 windows to the top of the
| desktop window stack, hiding any other windows which may
| overlap with one of these Chrome windows. This is very
| inconvenient if you want to be able to still see another
| window, say, TextEdit, you have open but it becomes hidden by
| Chrome window 2 you don't care about that got raised to the
| cover the TextEdit window merely because you switched to Chrome
| window 1. Switching directly to one single window is very
| clunky on MacOS by default.
| klodolph wrote:
| Command-tab already does this. Just keep holding command, use
| the up/down arrow to drill into the windows for the selected
| application. Play around with it you'll figure it out.
|
| It looks like this tool just simplifies it and gets rid of
| the hierarchy, so you don't have to remember which
| application owns the window you're looking for.
| azca wrote:
| Have been using this for a few years and the most amazing usecase
| is being able to switch between multiple chrome windows, just
| like windows used to let me do "same app, different window
| instances", with a preview!
|
| The other thing that works well with this for a life upgrade on a
| mac is finicky (GitHub.com/johnste/finicky )
| beepbooptheory wrote:
| Am I huge fan of i3wm, but have to use Windows for my job (which
| is not a tech job in any way). At a certain point I realized that
| Alt-Tab for switching and Meta-Left/Right for the half screen
| tiling is totally fine and pretty much all I need to get a
| sufficiently familiar flow. I still keep i3wm on my personal
| laptop because its a much smaller screen.
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| I use a keyboard mapper (better touch tool in my case) to
| configure Option+Tab to switch between windows of the same app.
| So I am constantly using Command+Tab and Option+Tab all the time,
| I think I could never come back. I also did not understand what
| this app brings, is it a preview of those windows?
| xenadu02 wrote:
| Command-` does this natively: cycle through windows of the
| active application. Note that on an ANSI keyboard backtick is
| right above Tab so it makes sense from a layout perspective.
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| Lol you are right. Didn't know. I'll stick to my solution
| though now that I got so used to. I also have a few other
| nice shortcuts like:
|
| option+< and option+> to resize window to left and right, and
| option+p to maximize. And also control+j and control+k to
| switch tabs in browsers and terminals.
|
| Probably there are also native shortcuts for that, but I like
| how I can make mines consistent across all apps.
| dmart wrote:
| However, Command-` does not work across desktops, while this
| app does. That's my main reason for using it.
| yodon wrote:
| This app is designed to give you Windows-style switching. MacOS
| is app-centric, so you have to switch to an app and then switch
| through the windows of the app. Windows has a unified window
| stack so Alt-Tab always takes you to the previous window,
| regardless of what app is responsible for that window. Repeated
| uses Alt-Tab takes you back through your most recently used
| windows, regardless of the Apps involved.
| nuccy wrote:
| Thanks for the advice, I frequently struggle with cmd+` since I
| have to use both MacOS and Linux regularly. Actually to remap
| cmd+` to option+tab there is no need to use any third-party
| apps, the settings (at least in Monterey) are available under
| System Settings->Keyboard->Shortcuts->Keyboard->"Move focus to
| next window".
| lsiunsuex wrote:
| hold command press tab
|
| press the up arrow
|
| let go of command
|
| press tab to cycle through windows in their size as they
| originally appeared, preview and all
| arusahni wrote:
| I paid for Witch and have been pretty happy with it [1]. Only
| issue is very occasionally the MacOS switcher and the Witch
| switcher both appear and fight for control.
|
| [1] https://manytricks.com/witch/
| js2 wrote:
| I assign them different activation keys. I use option-tab for
| Witch and cmd-tab for the built-in switcher.
| viraatdas wrote:
| How is this different from Contexts?
|
| https://contexts.co/
| markvaneijk wrote:
| What about the F3 key on a Mac, this let's you see all Windows
| and choose one..
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| Last time I tried doing that, it didn't even keep windows in
| the same place, breaking spatial memory. Is that still the
| case?
| markvaneijk wrote:
| You're right.. That seems to be the biggest difference with
| this Alt-Tab solution.
| yodon wrote:
| For Mac users asking "how is this different from the keystrokes I
| already have", this app is designed to give you Windows-style
| switching which is subtlety but fundamentally different from OSX-
| style window switching.
|
| MacOS is app-centric, so you have a keystroke to switch between
| apps and a keystroke to switch through the windows of the app.
| Windows is window-centric rather than app-centric, with a unified
| window stack so a single keystroke (Alt-Tab) always takes you to
| the previous window, regardless of what app is responsible for
| that window. Repeated Alt-Tab's take you back through your most
| recently used windows, regardless of the Apps involved.
|
| OSX users generally can't imagine not knowing what apps their
| windows are associated with, and Windows users generally can't
| imagine being expected to care what apps their windows are
| associated with.
|
| The difference is largely a historical artifact of the Macintosh
| operating system not originally supporting "multitasking." When
| the Mac first came out, it could only run one application at a
| time. If you wanted to switch between a spreadsheet and a word
| processor you had to close one application and open the other.
| Then the concept of a "switcher" was invented, which gave you the
| sense that the Mac was running multiple applications because it
| could do app-to-app context switching behind the scenes to make
| it feel like you were running multiple applications
| simultaneously. All of this meant there was no OS-level concept
| of "the window stack" there was only an app-level concept of
| window history, and a separate OS-level concept of app history.
|
| Windows launched after the Mac, into an era of slightly more
| powerful processors and better understanding of user behavior on
| truly multi-application devices. These differences led Microsoft
| to adopt an OS-level unified window history model. Apple
| undoubtedly discussed the idea, but even by the time Windows
| launched Mac users were fully accustomed to the Mac's windowing
| model and would have complained mightily at the conceptual switch
| had it been attempted then or at any other point in time.
|
| The more time you spend in one ecosystem, the more natural its
| approach feels to you, because you adapt to your environment over
| time.
| gms7777 wrote:
| I was one of the mac users that made that comment -- my point
| wasn't that this application isn't useful, it was that the
| landing page doesn't even try to explain why its useful.
| saghm wrote:
| The biggest annoyance for me on MacOS is that apps that I need
| to leave open but don't have windows open still show up in the
| switcher. When I'm on my work laptop, I still have to tab
| through Finder, the VPN app, etc. he rare times I need to work
| on the Java part of our codebase, I use the ssh remote beta for
| Intellij, which seems to open something called "Gateway", which
| is totally reasonable except that it adds yet _another_ entry
| to the cmd-tab menu. At this point, almost half of my cmd-tab
| menu is stuff that doesn't even have windows open. Back when I
| used MacOS more I had used something that I had gotten from the
| App Store way back (I think it was called "Witcher" or
| something), but with all the management software that the
| company has running in the background, the system already lags
| a decent amount every now and then, so I don't really want to
| add any more stuff for the management softwware to take up CPU
| time scanning. (I recognize that last part isn't specific to
| MacOS, but I can't help but feel like a user friendly OS would
| have better options built in specifically for cases where
| customization might not otherwise be desirable).
| klodolph wrote:
| I think a big part of this is just the fact that desktop is
| overall not a priority these days for anyone. The app
| developers could easily enough prevent their app from showing
| up in the switcher, and there are apps that do that--like
| Quicksilver, Display Menu, etc.
| klodolph wrote:
| > The difference is largely a historical artifact of the
| Macintosh operating system not originally supporting
| "multitasking."
|
| This is a nice story, but reading on it seems like you're
| saying that the way app switching works on Windows as the
| Obvious and Correct thing to do, and that the Macintosh way of
| doing things is nothing more than a choice that was made too
| long ago to change.
|
| Honestly, that's absurd.
|
| The Macintosh has a menu bar at the top of the screen which
| belongs to the foreground application. This is a reasonable
| place to put a menu bar, because it is easy to click on things
| which are at the edge or (better yet) corner of the screen.
| This is a perfectly reasonable justification for having a
| foreground application.
|
| Windows places the menu bar inside each window. So there is no
| need for "foreground application", only foreground window.
|
| That's all that you need in terms of explanation. The Mac puts
| its menu bar at the top of the screen, Windows puts it inside
| each window. There's no need to tell some story about how the
| Macintosh was created during a more primitive era of computing
| history, because that story has no explanatory power.
| alphachloride wrote:
| With window-specific menus, I can directly click on and open
| the menu button of another app/window without first having to
| focus it first to see the menu options. I find that to be
| more intuitive.
|
| I have always been a windows user and my intuition was shaped
| accordingly. So to me that is the obvious and correct thing
| to do.
| klodolph wrote:
| I find it faster to use the keyboard. On the Mac, I can
| switch to the browser or terminal and open a new window
| with cmd-tab and followed by cmd-N.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| It's actually surprising to me that the behaviour you
| describes works as it does. I would expect the first click
| to focus the window, then a second click to be required to
| open the menu. Does that mean that, if you want to focus a
| window, you have to find 'dead space' to click on if you
| don't want some other side effect?
| banana_giraffe wrote:
| yes, on either MacOS or Windows, if you click on an area
| in a window that doesn't have focus that triggers some
| action, that action will be triggered.
|
| There are exceptions on both platforms, games being
| common because of how they grab input.
|
| I've long since gotten in the habit of using the title
| bar or window-resizing area to safely activate a window
| .. when I'm using the mouse to change focus.
| zamadatix wrote:
| What's the connection between the menu bar and window
| switching?
| klodolph wrote:
| On a Mac, you want to be able to switch the foreground
| application. This is what command-tab does, it switches the
| foreground application.
| zamadatix wrote:
| I'm on a Mac right now but I'm still having trouble
| understanding the relation. Say I want to switch the
| foreground application so I press command-tab, I get
| that, but how does that relate to menus being inside or
| outside the application?
| klodolph wrote:
| Because the menu bar is associated with the application,
| not with the window. An open application does not need to
| have any open windows at all.
| yodon wrote:
| The concept of "an open application with no open windows"
| is a very OSX thing that other windowing OS's manage to
| avoid without effort or difficulty. There are lots of
| ways to represent background tasks, services, VPN's, etc,
| that don't require the concept of "an app without
| windows" in a windowing OS (and without polluting the app
| switching experience as other commenters have complained
| about).
| wtallis wrote:
| Why are you framing "an application with no open windows"
| as an idea that should be _avoided_? It 's a useful
| concept, especially when dealing with heavy applications
| that take a while to launch (perhaps with a splash
| screen). It's also _not_ how truly background services
| are represented to the user; only temporarily
| backgrounded aplications use this paradigm. Stuff that 's
| meant to almost always be in the background with little
| or no UI (eg. VPNs) generally don't take space in the
| Dock.
|
| I think it's a lot more fair to say that other desktop
| environments lack an equivalent because they don't have a
| cohesive notion of "application" in the first place,
| though influence from OS X/macOS has been pushing other
| desktop environments in that direction (see eg. the
| evolution of the Windows taskbar)
| flenserboy wrote:
| Yes. Having applications running and immediately
| accessible without windows present is more than handy,
| especially as those applications (generally) take up
| essentially no active memory & cpu.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| How does the file manager work on non-macOS in this
| context? That's probably my most common use case for an
| app with no (current) open windows.
| yodon wrote:
| Windows would just have you open the file manager app
| when you need a file manager window. No need for the
| "app" to be always open. To Windows users, it feels
| extremely strange to have an app that's always open that
| you can't close.
| klodolph wrote:
| I find it very convenient, because I often have multiple
| file manager windows open, and it's easy to accidentally
| close the last window.
| wtallis wrote:
| Windows Explorer is exactly this, so this behavior is not
| _at all_ foreign to Windows. The only meaningful
| difference in how these two UIs expose this same behind-
| the-scenes behavior (in recent versions) is that on
| Windows you have the option of removing Explorer from the
| taskbar if there are no open windows, while macOS Finder
| is always present in the dock.
| zamadatix wrote:
| For current Windows I wouldn't say backend behavior of
| Explorer is very similar to Finder at all. The "always
| running" Explorer instance is more similar to the system
| menu bar+dock which are separate components and processes
| from Finder. The "file browser" Explorer instances are
| more similar to Finder but are transient, the process
| only runs and shows as a running app in the task bar when
| you launch it and ceases to when be a process when you
| close it. The start menu functionality itself shares some
| aspects with Finder but that's not explorer anymore.
|
| In Windows XP days the behavior was very different and
| could be argued to be similar to any or all of those
| macOS components as Explorer was all of those things
| under one process for efficiency reasons.
| klodolph wrote:
| "Open application without windows" is not the same thing
| as "background task." When I run PostgreSQL on my Mac, it
| doesn't show up in the application switcher, because it's
| not an application.
|
| I find it convenient to be able to have an application
| with no windows. The big reason is for applications with
| longer startup times--unfortunately, something we don't
| have a good solution for. The other thing I like about it
| is that I can close a document and create a new document
| without figuring out if I need to reopen the application
| after closing a document. Closing a window only closes
| the application for cases where that makes sense (System
| Preferences).
| zamadatix wrote:
| Open windows or no open windows I still don't see how any
| of that says anything about the way the scope of the
| switcher works. There is no law of UI that says "an app
| with no foreground windows must not be switched to the
| same way via the same method as a window from another app
| would be".
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| On Mac, you can have an application open with no windows.
| In that situation, you have to be able to switch
| 'applications', not just 'windows'.
| NaOH wrote:
| >On Mac, you can have an application open with no
| windows.
|
| The exception to this is applications which can only
| display one window, such as System Preferences. Close
| that one window and the application will also be quit. As
| a lifetime Apple user dating to before the Mac, it's no
| issue for me, and I can understand the interface logic in
| play there, but to common users that logic is not
| apparent. I've seen plenty of average users who switched
| to Mac from Windows and they are usually baffled because
| to them the idea of "Xing out the last window" should
| always means the application is now quit.
| nick_ wrote:
| There isn't a relation.
| nick_ wrote:
| There isn't one. The two are orthogonal.
| nsonha wrote:
| this is actually quite an objective matter, most humans think
| visually and they will create a mental map of the WINDOWS in
| their mind, not the APPS. So making the subject of the action
| an abstract thing they can't see (the app, sometimes) would
| be the absurd thing.
| Shacklz wrote:
| > This is a perfectly reasonable justification for having a
| foreground application.
|
| Except when you start having multiple monitors. Then it's an
| utter mess, and I have no idea how the Mac-enthusiasts are
| putting up with it. And as far as I'm aware, most actually
| kind of don't - the few mac-enthusiasts that I know all use
| their customized setup that heavily relies on third-party-
| tools.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Using a couple of virtual desktops and "show all windows"
| is more efficient for switching between windows than alt-
| tabbing through a linear list. I can't speak for mouse
| people, but the trackpad gestures are very good for getting
| around quickly.
| klodolph wrote:
| Been using multiple monitors with macOS for at least a
| couple decades at this point. I switch back and forth
| between macOS, Windows, and Linux regularly--so I don't
| feel like I'm missing out on experiences from other OSs. My
| macOS setup is completely stock these days. I don't see
| what the problem is, could you elaborate?
| nick_ wrote:
| A stack of the most-recently-in-focus windows is more
| practical than a stack of the most-recently-in-focus apps.
|
| The absurd thing to me is that macOS didn't adopt this
| simpler workflow model.
|
| No one is trying to throw out the baby with the bathwater
| here. macOS is a very good OS. Windows does this one aspect
| better.
| flenserboy wrote:
| Only seen as such when coming from a Windows background.
| The Windows paradigm is maddening when approached from the
| perspective of someone who has used Macs for decades.
| wolpoli wrote:
| > Windows launched after the Mac, into an era of slightly more
| powerful processors and better understanding of user behavior
| on truly multi-application devices. These differences led
| Microsoft to adopt an OS-level unified window history model.
|
| Yet Microsoft seems to be walking away from this model.
|
| The Windows Taskbar was built on that, but has since diverged
| quite a bit from that model. The Windows 95 taskbar originally
| showed one entry per Window, until Windows XP started grouping
| Windows together when the Taskbar gets too crowded. Then
| Windows 7 started hiding the labels and made the Taskbar into a
| combined program launcher/window switcher, which now made the
| behavior of clicking on the icon itself very inconsistent,
| depending on the state of the program:
|
| - when no instance of the program is running - shows the
| launching program animation and launches the program and brings
| the window on top
|
| - when program has one window minimized - shows the
| unminimizing animation and brings the window on top
|
| - when has one window not in focus - brings the window on top
|
| - When program has one window on top - shows the minimizing
| animation and minimizes the window
|
| - When program has multiple windows - opens the Taskbar Live
| Preview
| binarycrusader wrote:
| _Windows launched after the Mac_
|
| Only by a little bit of time in some regards; for Windows 1.0
| Microsoft first presented it to the public on November 10,
| 1983. The first retail release, originally slated for release
| in April 1984, Windows 1.01, was instead released on November
| 20, 1985. System 1, the classic Macintosh System Software was
| released in January 1984.
|
| Also, yes, the Lisa was arguably the first to ship with the
| Desktop graphical interface most like the Macintosh prior to
| that even.
|
| I'd posit that both Windows and Macintosh graphical user
| interface designs started around the same time effectively due
| to the market and depending on whether you were in the
| education or business sector, you could perceive the
| pervasiveness of each wildly differently.
|
| I personally believe the Macintosh designers' early choice to
| heavily lean on skeuomorphic designs and its popularity in the
| nascent Desktop computer publishing industry reinforced the
| architectural multi-tasking choices made early in its
| development.
| yodon wrote:
| Windows 1.0 was technically a thing but as you probably know
| the thing the rest of the world thinks of as Windows didn't
| really launch until Windows 3 (and arguably didn't really
| fully ship until 3.11)
| 40four wrote:
| I appreciate your detailed explanation, I came to the comments
| for exactly this reason. "How is Windows 'Alt-tab' any
| different".
|
| I hate to say, I'm still not following you :) I have spent
| plenty of time developing of both Mac & Windows systems. I
| still can't think of any difference in behavior.
|
| What you said _In Windows "with a unified window stack so a
| single keystroke (Alt-Tab) always takes you to the previous
| window"_ , this is the same on Mac. A single press of "Cmd-tab"
| always goes to the previous window. So if you press it, release
| & repeat, you will just keep toggling the same two windows.
| Same behavior.
|
| Mac, as you mentioned gives you an extra layer, where you can
| cycle windows of the same App 'type' with "Cmd - `". Which I
| find very useful, and actually miss when I'm on Windows.
|
| What am I missing? "Alt - tab" & "Cmd - tab" have the same
| behavior, no? Then Mac gives you the extra "Cmd - `". Why would
| I want them Windows behavior? Maybe I should just download it
| and try for myself haha.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Let's say you have Firefox and Chrome open, each with two
| windows. alt+tab on Windows cycles between all 4. cmd+tab on
| Mac cycles between each apps most recently focused window.
|
| Hold cmd and press tab on a Mac, notice that it doesn't even
| show windows, it shows app icons.
| 40four wrote:
| Ahhh... okay I get it now. I'm a little slow sometimes :)
|
| That's a good example. So "Cmd - tab" brings all the
| windows of a particular app to the forefront, but shows the
| most recent, while the others are 'buried'. Then requiring
| the "Cmd - `" to dig out the older ones.
|
| Yeah it's subtle, but I see the difference now, thanks for
| setting me straight!
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| > but shows the most recent
|
| Apart from when, due to a bug in recent macOS, it brings
| up a different window. Which is _incredibly_ frustrating.
| klodolph wrote:
| Note that you also can cycle between any window with
| command-tab. Press command-tab, and while holding command,
| press up or down arrow. This will drill into the windows
| for that application and let you select a specific window,
| without first bringing that application to the front.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| As a former Windows, but now Mac, user I find Mac's system to
| work just fine. Especially once you learn that cmd+~ switches
| between the current app's windows. Plus, 4-finger swipe up
| shows all the current open windows.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| I wish window switching worked in the same way as app
| switching, though. The former acts like a stack while the
| latter acts like a queue - I have no idea why.
| lupire wrote:
| Works fine until half your "apps" are actually browser
| windows, and exhausting trying to remember which key do you
| use based on which app you need to switch to.
| klodolph wrote:
| You can also use the up/down arrow when you have the app
| switcher open to drill into the windows for that application.
| mr_november wrote:
| This is cool but as a long time macOS user who is now on Windows
| at least half time, I really miss Cmd + Tab application switching
| when on Windows.
|
| Anyone know of a way to get that behaviour in Windows?
| abdusco wrote:
| If you pin (you don't have to) an app to the taskbar, you can
| hit [Win] + [index num] on the keyboard and it switches to app
| at that index. Keep hitting the num key and you switch between
| the windows of that app.
|
| Pinning the app will assign it an index (the icon won't change
| position) so you can switch to windows of your editor with
| Win+2 and windows of file explorer with Win+1 without even
| looking at the taskbar, for example.
|
| Here's a detailed description from HowToGeek[0]:
|
| > Press the Windows key along with a number key to launch the
| corresponding app. On the taskbar above, for example, Windows+3
| would launch Google Chrome, Windows+4 would launch Slack, and
| so on all the way up through Windows+0 for Outlook. Using these
| keyboard shortcuts on an app that's already running will toggle
| the app between a minimized and maximized state.
|
| > You can also hold down Shift while using those shortcuts to
| launch a new instance of an app that's already running. In our
| example, pressing Shift+Windows+3 would open a new window for
| Chrome, even if Chrome is already open.
|
| > Using the Ctrl key with those shortcuts displays the most
| recently launched instance of an app. For example, say you had
| three File Explorer windows open on your PC, and File Explorer
| was in the first position on your taskbar. Pressing
| Ctrl+Windows+1 would show you the File Explorer window you most
| recently opened.
|
| [0]: https://www.howtogeek.com/276982/the-most-useful-keyboard-
| sh...
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| Context: Cmd-Tab in macOS switches between the foremost windows
| of open applications (i.e. never between windows of the same
| app).
|
| I don't have a solution for you, but if you used the complement
| feature cmd-` (switch between open windows of the currently
| focused app) I _did_ implement that for Windows:
| https://neosmart.net/blog/2017/easy-window-switcher/
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| Wait what, macOS doesn't have any built in equivalent?
| krferriter wrote:
| No. There is no way to get MacOS to be able to switch between
| open windows on a desktop via a keyboard shortcut without
| installing 3rd party software that adds this basic
| functionality.
| therealmarv wrote:
| not true: [?] Command + `
| bragh wrote:
| This only switches between windows of the same app. On
| Windows, with Alt+Tab you switch between all of the
| currently open windows of all applications.
| wccrawford wrote:
| Not quite. That will switch between windows of a single
| app.
|
| The AltTab thing here will switch between all windows of
| all apps.
|
| I actually like having them separate like OSX does it, even
| though I'm generally a Windows guy.
| krferriter wrote:
| Nope, that doesn't do it. If I have 2 Chrome windows and 3
| terminal windows and 2 text editor windows open on MacOS,
| there is _no_ way to merely switch from a Chrome window to
| a specific terminal window. You have to switch to the
| terminal application, which raises _all_ 3 terminal windows
| to the top of the window stack on whichever display they
| are on, then switch between terminal windows. To enable the
| basic feature of switching directly between windows, you
| have to install 3rd party software.
| therealmarv wrote:
| I get with keyboard only to a specific window without any
| 3rd party app this way... I think the question is solved
| in a way (not saying it's the best way)
| nsonha wrote:
| I don't think this affects minimized app which is another
| annoyance
| klodolph wrote:
| Cmd-tab, and then while holding command, use up/down arrow to
| drill into the windows for a specific app. I realize that
| this is not great if you need to switch back and forth
| between the same two windows over and over again.
| therealmarv wrote:
| [?] Command + `
| MBCook wrote:
| The Mac has its own key commands for switching between windows.
| Cmd-Tab and Cmd-`.
|
| It does not have a key command that is 100% identical in
| behavior to Alt-Tab.
|
| That bugs some people, it seems.
| silon42 wrote:
| Yup... I tried macOS for a few months... first thing I went
| looking for (well, second after switching command/alt or
| whatever it is).
| nsonha wrote:
| as I'm using mac fulltime I have to do it the other way, in
| my window any linux machine I map their Ctrls to the Meta
| key. There is a program called kinto that does it.
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