[HN Gopher] Witch - macOS window switcher replacement
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Witch - macOS window switcher replacement
Author : jackdh
Score : 117 points
Date : 2023-06-02 13:42 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (manytricks.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (manytricks.com)
| user6723 wrote:
| After https://SwayWM.org I have told prospective employers that
| I'm gonna have to use a Linux system when working there and if
| not it's okay I can work somewhere else.
|
| "But our security team can only support Mac and Windows" is a sad
| joke I hear too often.
|
| A couple years ago I turned down an employment package offer that
| was too good to turn down and said I could be available as a
| contractor. A big part was I didn't wanna be forced to use a
| f**ing Mac. Taxes made more sense too so yeah.
| anotherhue wrote:
| I had some success with this, but then came the issues with
| screensharing on zoom, so they got me in the end.
| rochak wrote:
| A hard requirement on what OS we wanna use is not a luxury most
| of us can afford. Good for you though to be along the few who
| can.
| kristiandupont wrote:
| I'll just quickly plug Kanel
| (https://github.com/kristiandupont/kanel) which I use to generate
| Typescript types from a Postgres database. I agree with the
| author to think migrations-first, though I prefer to write them
| in SQL to ensure I can utilize all the powerful features that
| Postgres has to offer.
|
| With it, I only get types for the tables and views etc., so any
| join will be untyped if done client-side. This is still a big win
| in my opinion, and I much prefer it to normal ORM's.
| muhammadusman wrote:
| wrong topic / hn thread?
| kristiandupont wrote:
| Indeed, but I can't delete it now. Oh well, thanks for the
| heads up!
| I_am_tiberius wrote:
| I switched from KDE to Mac some months back and I'm shocked how
| many window management features are missing. I'm especially
| disappointed about the dock. I would love being able to see
| native window previews when hovering over an application icon.
| Also I would like to split the dock into the different spaces
| (virtual desktops). Currently the dock seems not to be
| considering the fact tha Mac OS supports spaces.
| chrisfinazzo wrote:
| I still want macOS to "borrow" (Read: steal) window snapping
| from Windows. The mere existence of MultiView on Apple TV gives
| me hope that _someone_ is at least thinking about how to
| implement such a system.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orl5SlmIceA
| bgm1975 wrote:
| Have you tried Magnet[1] yet? I've been using it for years
| and really love it. TBH, I prefer it over way Windows does it
| (forcing you to decide wha goes in the "other" side of the
| screen).
|
| [1] https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/
| winkywooster wrote:
| magnet's keybindings for me are the best defaults--they are
| very intuitive, and don't conflict with emacs. rectangle is
| an alternative i've tried, but magnet is the one for me.
| psychomugs wrote:
| BetterSnapTool is the first thing I install on macOS.
| gregorias wrote:
| I'm already using [Contexts](https://contexts.co/) for this
| purpose, and I don't think I need anything else.
| DavideNL wrote:
| I also use Contexts, and prefer it over AltTab and others...
| TMWNN wrote:
| I used AltTab first, then switched to Contexts because AltTab
| imposed a serious performance penalty on my older Intel Mac.
| Did you also experience that?
| devbent wrote:
| Contexts is amazing, being able to search window titles is how
| I do almost all my navigation between apps now days, especially
| when I have code editors open to multiple (4+) different
| projects.
|
| I have an equivalent installed on Windows (I forget its name)
| and it is likewise just as amazingly useful.
| maximilianroos wrote:
| Most underrated app!
| ilikepi wrote:
| That looks interesting, but does it work in Ventura? They only
| list Big Sur and Monterey on the website...
| josegonzalez wrote:
| Works for me on Ventura.
| keybits wrote:
| Contexts is excellent. There's a free trial. Keyboard FTW!
|
| I configure it to be a minimal cmd-tab switcher that shows all
| windows for each app. I disable the sidebar and other
| unnecessary stuff.
| nerdjon wrote:
| Whenever I see tools like this for Mac I can't help but wonder if
| I am seriously missing something.
|
| Unlike when I use Windows, I just don't use command (alt) tab on
| Mac. I rely almost entirely on gestures on my trackpad (three
| fingers swipe up to see all my windows that are not minimized).
|
| With the added benefit of that allowing me to drag those windows
| to other screens/desktops right from that UI.
|
| Is there some power user advantage I am missing out on here or is
| this sort of making Mac work more like Windows? On Windows I use
| alt tab all the time just because... I find its windows
| management sucks compared to Mac.
| spurgu wrote:
| > I rely almost entirely on gestures on my trackpad (three
| fingers swipe up to see all my windows that are not minimized).
|
| Swiping alone is unnecessarily slow so I don't do it unless I
| need visual assistance. I do them all though, in this order of
| frequency:
|
| - Cmd+Tab for switching apps (most frequent action)
|
| - Option+Tab (remapped) for switching windows of active app
|
| - Three-fingers down to see all windows of current app
|
| - Three-fingers up to see all windows (rarely used because I
| have too many windows open for this to be useful)
|
| In addition I use Ctrl+{1,4} to move between different
| workspaces (although I sometimes use three-finger swipe
| left/right for this but too often I want to skip one (like
| going from 1 to 3) in which case swiping is annoying.
|
| Moving windows to a different desktop/workspace I do by
| clicking titlebar and pressing Ctrl+{1,4}.
|
| Relying on the "overview" (or whatever it's called) sounds
| convenient, but slower than what I do.
| codybontecou wrote:
| How do you get the three-fingers down behavior?
| kps wrote:
| Your OS version may vary (I'm not up to date) but look for
| 'App Expose' in the Trackpad settings.
| spurgu wrote:
| Trackpad -> More gestures -> App Expose
|
| https://i.imgur.com/u9BRDU8.png (Big Sur, YMMV)
| ant6n wrote:
| The problem is MacOs' window switching behavior when using alt-
| tab and alt-`. The one switches to the most recently used other
| software, the other cycles through the windows of the same
| software.
|
| Now imagine u have 10 terminal windows and 3 chrome windows
| open. And you switch back and forth between two or three of
| these windows. In Mac Os you cant really do that, because u
| have to cycle through all the windows of the same software to
| get back to the other terminal window youre working on.
|
| And thats why people use non keyboard methods for switching
| windows, which sux,
|
| I hate Windows, but I also hate Mac Os for its dumb opiniated
| design choices that after 20 years theres still no option for
| fixing, so u need to pay 20$ for some tools that give you sane
| usability (also the the need for better touch tool to get
| proper tap to drag without a release delay).
|
| And the worst is the fanboys that act like Mac Os' wonky
| choices are a necessity because I'm holding wrong and they
| never had a problem with it.
| brimstedt wrote:
| You might like kde. Imo it's superior to both windows and Mac
| and it's adaptable so you can have an efficient workflow.
| tssva wrote:
| What exactly am I missing with gestures on Windows vs macOS for
| this purpose? 3 finger gesture brings up my windows and allows
| me to drag windows to different workspaces. 4 finger swipes
| left and right allows me to switch workspaces.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| I've never quite gotten the appeal of Winlike alt-tab myself.
| Its usability rapidly degrades with the number of windows open,
| with the downward slope beginning at ~5 windows and curving
| down exponentially from there. Being that I've always got 10+
| windows open at any given time it's almost useless for me.
|
| I could see some utility in a keystroke that only toggles
| between the two last used windows, but full-on alt-tab just
| doesn't work for me.
| zanellato19 wrote:
| That's exactly what alt-tab is when used without holding.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| Yep, but I think that little bit of functionality alone is
| enough to be given its own separate shortcut that doesn't
| summon UI or switch to some other window if accidentally
| held a bit too long.
| deathanatos wrote:
| > _Unlike when I use Windows, I just don 't use command (alt)
| tab on Mac. I rely almost entirely on gestures on my trackpad
| (three fingers swipe up to see all my windows that are not
| minimized)._
|
| First, [?]+Tab & Alt+Tab do different things; the latter is far
| superior in doing The Right Thing.
|
| But me too, but I use the gestures _because_ I lack Alt+Tab,
| not because they 're better.
|
| I do like the gesture feature, and I think, even if I had
| Alt+Tab, gestures would have its own place.
|
| I also wish the catchment for resize wasn't a single pixel in
| macOS. In Linux, with the shortcuts, it's 1/8th the entire
| window. Resizing in Linux is the entire window, which is nice
| now that applications feel the need to invade the title bar.
| (I'm looking at you, browsers.)
| dantehemerson wrote:
| I found it useful because I try to avoid using mouse as much as
| possible.
| yakk0 wrote:
| There are Mac users like myself that don't have a trackpad or
| touchpad. After trying the Magic Mouse when I got my Mini I
| reverted back to my 20 year old Microsoft optical mouse. I long
| for the Windows style of app switching where you can go through
| each window instead of the Mac style where you go through each
| app.
| wbobeirne wrote:
| Cmd+~ switches between windows of the same application
| dieulot wrote:
| Alt+Tab lets you switch to a previous window instantly. MacOS's
| UI sluggishness is jarring when you're a power user from
| another platform.
| vehemenz wrote:
| When is the last time you used macOS? Command+Tab also
| switches to the previous window instantly. It only brings up
| the switcher when you hold it longer.
| nick_ wrote:
| It switches to the previous _app_, not window. It will
| bring all of that app's windows to the front. A core
| feature a lot of folks want is fast, window-oriented focus
| switching.
| lelandfe wrote:
| Cmd-`, and Cmd-Shift-`, switches between the current
| app's windows. Using a combination of Cmd-Tab and Cmd-`,
| I've never had a problem.
|
| I think people just like what they're used to,
| ultimately.
| kristiandupont wrote:
| I've been using MacOS for over 10 years by now and I
| still consider it vastly inferior in this regard. I
| recently started using alt-tab which does a pretty good
| job at mimicking Windows but it's slightly buggy and
| introduces a tiny but noticeable delay which is a
| constant source of frustration to me.
| spiffytech wrote:
| Cmd-` is pretty inelegant. It disturbs your workspace,
| bringing all the windows you cycle through to the
| foreground and leaving them there. You have to play spot-
| the-difference looking for which window just popped up,
| then evaluate whether it's the one you want.
|
| Other desktop environments put the window switcher in the
| center of the screen (so your eyes can unthinkingly jump
| straight to it), you can quickly tell "hit <tab> four
| times to get the window I want", and your workspace
| wasn't disturbed with other windows you aren't interested
| in.
| alanbernstein wrote:
| Imagine you have three tasks, where each one uses one
| window from your browser, terminal, finder, and editor.
| You rarely want to switch between app windows, but you
| often want to switch between "task windows". The
| windows/Linux alt-tab style is faster here.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| I have caps lock bound to open the item2 visor
| dieulot wrote:
| I'm using it as my primary OS since late 2020.
| behnamoh wrote:
| I wish we could remove the animation between spaces on macos.
| there's always a delay before you get to use the space you
| switched to.
| yboris wrote:
| Unsure if you mean AltTab - https://alt-tab-
| macos.netlify.app/ -- it's my favorite
| brimstedt wrote:
| AltTab and Rectangle is what makes Mac DE usable.
| ostenning wrote:
| Yep, I recommend these both, a lot.
| pleb_nz wrote:
| That is making the assumption every user uses the Mac keyboard
| for typing, I for one don't when I am at my desks.
| nbar1 wrote:
| Same for me. Trackpad is my best friend for productivity.
| 4-fingers up (and also bottom-left hot corner) for Mission
| Control, top-left hot corner for desktop, 4-finger swipe
| left/right between spaces.
|
| I don't need anything more than that, and any app that offers
| more just becomes noise.
| nerdjon wrote:
| The trackpad gestures is a major reason that Mac is my
| primary OS while Windows is there when I have to use it.
|
| Even on my "desktop" Mac setup (which is really just my
| laptop in a dock) I have a full keyboard and the Magic
| Trackpad joined together with that tool from twelve south.
|
| Thinking about it more I feel like I just use Windows and Mac
| differently. Most of the time I am in full screen mode (so
| any windows is just a quick swipe to the left or right) and
| when I am not I have multiple desktops or I have split full
| screen mode. Plus using 3 monitors I really just don't find
| myself switching all that often.
|
| For me Windows feels like the worse management when I get
| used to what Mac has to offer.
| smoldesu wrote:
| KDE is so close to getting the best of both worlds out-of-
| box for Linux users. I highly recommend it to anyone who
| has a Magic Trackpad-heavy workflow (and it's probably why
| KDE is the default on Asahi).
|
| - 4 finger swipe up is an overview for all desktops
|
| - 4 finger swipe down is an overview for all _windows_
|
| - 3 finger pinch does the MacOS-style desktop overview with
| your other desktops at the top
|
| All of the gestures are 1:1 with the trackpad, and are
| functionally very useful. It feels a _little_ cobbled
| together in current builds, but I 'm hoping it gets extra
| attention with KDE6: https://youtu.be/aBEsxTVRsEo?t=100
| sylens wrote:
| I have been incredibly impressed by KDE in my recent uses
| of various Linux distros
| brimstedt wrote:
| The nice thing about kde's version of "showing all window
| thumbnails" is that it's also searchable by typing
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| Some people are unable to (or prefer not to) use the touchpad
| or pointing devices.
| chii wrote:
| such as having the mac docked and connected to an external
| screen with the original screen closed.
|
| There are of course keyboard shortcuts to access expose or
| spaces, but then what's the difference between alt-tab and
| that?
| Veen wrote:
| You can also use hot corners.
| apocalyptic0n3 wrote:
| Which are often annoying if you are using multiple
| displays because the interior corners aren't used (or at
| least aren't in my configuration)
| tsuujin wrote:
| This is how I use my MacBook, but I still use a wireless
| touchpad just fine.
| mrbabbage wrote:
| No, the joke is on us MacOS users who insist on its terrible
| Alt-Tab behavior instead of leaning into the gesture support.
|
| But I do believe the gesture support has fundamental
| limitations:
|
| 1) you have to take your keys off the home row to render
| gestures. Not good!
|
| 2) gesture window switching / Expose breaks down when you have
| too many windows open: the thumbnails become unrecognizably
| small.
|
| 3) to solve the above problem, perhaps you suggest using
| spaces. Well, MacOS's spaces support is also frustrating. It's
| _impossible_ to turn off the animation and time lag switching
| between spaces! Sure, it 's only a half-second, but a half-
| second repeated hundreds of times adds up. And spaces's
| interaction with alt-tab is totally broken: if you're using a
| given app (say Chrome), switch to another space where Chrome is
| also open, and then try to alt-tab back, it doesn't take you
| back to the last window you had open. Sad!
| cmiller1 wrote:
| I love the mac alt-tab behavior, you just move your finger up
| one key to switch between windows in the current app grouping
| them nicely unlike Windows where they're all a big mishmash.
| patrickserrano wrote:
| Came here to say the same thing! Whenever I'm using my work
| PC the alt-tab behavior of windows drives me nuts.
| nicoburns wrote:
| My issue with this behaviour is that I often don't want my
| windows to be grouped by app. I want to be able to group
| windows by project, and I may want to have multiple
| projects in the same set of apps. Workspaces (virtual
| desktops) ought to be perfect for this, but there is no way
| to get alt-tab like switching between windows in a desktop
| on macOS.
| 8ytecoder wrote:
| It also breaks down when you have a full screen window
| and a normal window. It's so jarring.
| Tagbert wrote:
| One more reason to avoid the dead end of full screen
| windows.
| derrasterpunkt wrote:
| We'll that's the thing. Windows is based around windows
| and macOS is based around applications. I get that you
| want to use macOS like you use windows but that is the
| historical usage of these UI.
| kristiandupont wrote:
| Hah, my perspective is the exact opposite!
|
| On Windows, there is a nicely and predictably maintained
| Z-order, whereas MacOS insists that if I want to switch
| focus, surely I want _all_ the windows that the other app
| has to offer, which feels like a big "mishmash" to me.
| abawany wrote:
| I agree as well, which is why I've used HyperSwitch for
| many years. It restore most of the goodness of the
| Windows focus switching experience with a defined
| keybinding.
| laserlight wrote:
| > MacOS insists that if I want to switch focus, surely I
| want all the windows that the other app has to offer,
| which feels like a but mishmash to me.
|
| This had not been the case. Command tabbing would bring
| forward only the last active window. It was very handy to
| switch back and forth between text editor and browser
| that way. But then, they decided command tab should bring
| forward all windows, which ruined usability for me. Now I
| use BetterTouchTool [0] to directly switch to an app.
| Doing so brings forward only the last active window.
|
| [0] https://folivora.ai
| carimura wrote:
| The space animation lag is mind boggling. Not only is it a
| half second, but it locks keypress until finished.
|
| Any Apple devs (or anyone) here who can comment about why
| they removed the expose-animation-duration option?
| vehemenz wrote:
| I'd love some insight, too. I was just trying to disable
| the delay this morning. Even with the "Reduce Motion"
| option checked, the delay is too long.
| fathyb wrote:
| I went through the same and ended up disabling ProMotion
| on my 16 MBP because a bug makes this animation run twice
| as long on 120 FPS screens.
| ubercow13 wrote:
| If you change spaces using the keyboard shortcuts like
| Ctrl+1,2 etc. (they might not be set to that by default..
| it's 'Switch to Desktop 1' etc in the settings), then there
| is still a shorter animation, and there is _no_ input delay
| when switching.
| temende wrote:
| If you install yabai (https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai)
| it has a feature that can completely disable spaces
| switching animations - but it does require partially
| disabling SIP (worth it for yabai, IMO).
| satrday wrote:
| For 3, enable Reduce Motion under System Settings >
| Accessibility > Display.
|
| This makes switching spaces and windows nearly instant with
| no animation. I don't notice whatever else lost
| animations...so I don't miss them. Worth a try!
| mrbabbage wrote:
| That turns off the _animation_ but leaves the _time delay_
| in place. E.g. if you have a text field selected in the
| target window, any typing you do won 't register until the
| fade in--fade out animation completes (exact same behavior
| as with the option disabled, but with the fade animation
| instead of the slide animation).
| joshspankit wrote:
| This.
|
| Apple hard-codes "while lies" to make the experience
| smoother for those with slower devices, but they end up
| getting in the way if you want the UI to run _fast_.
|
| It's like having triple-buffering and vsync enabled all
| the time. Less chance of it looking broken, but not worth
| the tradeoff for those that feed on responsiveness.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Re: 2), it's particularly painful if you need the "reduce
| motion" accessibility setting. Instead of shrinking down from
| their current positions where you might glimpse a window mid-
| animation and see where it's going, you get a fade effect
| from full size windows straight to unreadably small windows.
| nerdjon wrote:
| As far as those limitations go.
|
| 1) That would also be true if you are switching to nearly any
| GUI based app that you need the mouse except for maybe if you
| are switching to a text editor but I doubt every time you
| switch apps you are immediately typing something, so not
| really sure I see the problem there.
|
| 2) True, maybe I just don't tend to have a ton of windows
| open at the same time.
|
| 3) I can't really speak on how it behaves with alt-tab
| however with the track pad it is as fast as you swipe and
| tied to that swipe. I can slow it down or speed it up.
| franciscop wrote:
| While I agree, there's some few cases where I find Alt+Tab to
| be superior. A small example, you are writing a PR and want to
| peek at the code, you can cmd+tab, look, cmd+tab again and keep
| typing without moving your hands from the position. So for that
| "peeking" it's very useful while keeping focus. I find grander
| gestures like three fingers up to be a lot better when I want
| to "context switch" though.
|
| Now the only/big annoyance in macOS is that "closed" windows
| don't close the app, so you are back from a zoom meeting trying
| to get into the zone and you cmd+tab from code to terminal and
| back expecting that to work and suddenly you are greeted
| tabbing into Zoom, but it is closed, but it still gets in the
| way.
| rzwitserloot wrote:
| I use CMD+TAB prodigiously, but only to switch to the
| previously open thing or the second-previously open thing. If
| I'm looking for a certain window I use the three-finger-swipe-
| up, or, if using the mouse, it has a few extra programmable
| buttons and one of them is programmed to do that.
|
| It feels like CMD+TAB was designed to be used for this purpose
| and not for the more general ersatz 'open an application I know
| is currently running' mode.
|
| But, hey, if you _do_ use it for that, this Witch window
| switcher seems like a great idea. More power to you!
| qxxx wrote:
| personally I don't use the magic mouse or the touch pad (only
| if I work remotely and i have the macbook with me) but the
| magic mouse is terrible compared to normal mouse. I use a
| gaming mouse with a ton of macro keys. These keys do various
| things, most important keys are keys for switching desktops.
| Tagbert wrote:
| The appeal of the Magic Mouse is that it allows gestures like
| a trackpad. If you are not a gesture person, then it's just a
| funny-shaped mouse with a kinky charging method.
| tracker1 wrote:
| I'm usually docked and using a model-m style keyboard and a
| standard two button + scroll-wheel mouse. So such gestures
| aren't really convenient for me. Switching apps is really
| painful, as I tend to have a few browser windows with different
| profiles, as well as a couple projects on VS Code open. It's
| kind of ugly imo.
|
| I wouldn't mind if I could trigger the same gesture (as three
| finger swipe) with cmd or cmd+ctrl with the scroll wheel.
| darkteflon wrote:
| I use Hyper (Caps) + Space for the 3-fingers up gesture, plus
| Hyper + q / e for switching desktops and Hyper + w for
| 3-fingers down. Works very well.
| vehemenz wrote:
| The nice thing about macOS is that there are several equally
| effective paradigms for window management. For example, you use
| trackpad gestures for Mission Control as your primary switcher,
| whereas I use Command+Tab and only use Mission Control
| sparingly with mouse5 (no trackpad). Likewise, some people use
| a visible Dock, but I've never seen the point of it.
| karaterobot wrote:
| Over the years, Apple has implemented inadequate window
| management in MacOS in a number of ways, empowering the user by
| giving them the choice of which method to be frustrated by.
|
| For example, the CMD+Tab task switcher seems natural, but it has
| an issue where you can select an app _and it does absolutely
| nothing_ , which is both infuriating and incomprehensible. Is it
| ignoring me because the app is minimized? Did it send it to
| another desktop? I have no idea! It must be deterministic, but
| I'll be damned if I can figure it out. I am sure "real mac users"
| get it, and I'm happy for them, but poor benighted souls like me
| just wonder why their $2500 computer isn't doing what they're
| telling it to. And whatever that perfectly good reason is, there
| is an even more perfectly good reason to make it work the way
| users expect.
|
| The Dock has the same issue with letting you click on an app, and
| then not bringing that app on screen, or telling me why it's
| ignoring my command. Both of the above patterns work better in
| Windows, and have worked better for decades, and Apple designers
| should be a little ashamed of that.
|
| Mission Control is probably the most useful method, because it
| actually brings selected applications on screen (the minimum
| functionality you would expect). However, it does not support
| keyboard shortcuts for navigating and selecting an application!
| How is this possible? It feels like a couple story point ticket
| to me, yet it remains a problem after a decade. Maybe Apple
| stubbornly assumes everyone will use a touchpad for everything,
| despite them selling products without touchpads in them. For
| money.
|
| The other problem with Mission Control is that it should not
| require your entire screen to switch apps. It feels too form-
| over-function to me.
|
| I tried the newest entry, Stage Manager, for several months. It's
| like a cross between Mission Control and the Dock. It works well
| (that is, it does what it's supposed to), except it's missing the
| ability to change the size of the window thumbnails. It takes up
| quite a lot of the screen for the value it gives you. Not that
| being able to select a window and switch to it isn't valuable,
| just that that's how the Dock should already work, and Dock
| doesn't take up 10-15% of the screen.
| slotrans wrote:
| > but poor benighted souls like me just wonder why their $2500
| computer isn't doing what they're telling it to.
|
| This is the essence of 99% of my frustration with computers
| (smartphones especially) anymore. I find myself literally
| shouting I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO DO THAT at my devices. I grew up
| hearing the platitude that computers only do what we tell them
| to do. I wish that was true!
| qxxx wrote:
| yeah... I have the same problem. I click on the icon in dock
| and nothing happens. For example, Microsoft Teams.. I need this
| to open it and contact someone asap, but nothing happens. I
| need to search for the teams window on all the desktops. Or
| right click it and select the window, usually this works. But
| still frustrating. I have been using Mac for 6 months (before
| Windows and Linux) and Mac OS is sometimes frustrating when
| trying to do the most simple stuff like bringing a closed app
| back to front.
| hobs wrote:
| It's because the app is hidden, its really arcane but if you:
| cmd+tab -> hover over a hidden app -> now also hold option ->
| let go of cmd+tab -> your app will appear
| barefeg wrote:
| Kind of off topic, but has tiling managers for macOS improved in
| the last few years? I remember I tried one solution (I can't
| remember the name now) which worked OK but it was a little buggy
| some times. Ever since I just use the standard window manager and
| try to manage with cmd + tab, cmd + `, and gestures to change
| spaces.
| Tagbert wrote:
| And Rectangle. I really like it's Window Throw method in the
| Pro version.
|
| The problem with the built-in methods is that they use spaces
| and split them for windows. That locks you into that space just
| as full-screen view does.
| bbx wrote:
| I've been using BetterSnapTool for years. Can't recommend it
| enough. It takes a bit to configure your zones, but it's so
| versatile and easy to use. I have dozens of shortcuts to divide
| my screen into 3rds, quarters, 6 or 8 equal zones...
|
| https://folivora.ai/bettersnaptool
| addandsubtract wrote:
| BST is part of BetterTouchTool, which is invaluable on its
| own.
| Sodman wrote:
| +1 for BetterSnapTool. I've had it for years, one of the
| first things I install on any new Mac. It's always "just
| worked" for me, zero issues.
| CamelRocketFish wrote:
| https://github.com/kasper/phoenix
|
| This let's you have complete control over tiling.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I have a config for that with window hints and progressive
| resizing: https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix
| seeekr wrote:
| Have been using Moom for ages, and still sticking with it for
| now! Works well!
| mfontani wrote:
| I use skhd and yabai, and it's quite okay. Not as great as i3
| under linux, but much better than OSX's defaults for sure.
| iaresee wrote:
| Amethyst is my tiling manager of choice for macOS:
| https://ianyh.com/amethyst/
|
| It was a little buggy when Ventura dropped, but it gets
| frequent updates and has stabilized in the past few months.
| howinteresting wrote:
| I love what yabai is trying to do, but it does really suck for
| no fault of its own.
| spsesk117 wrote:
| Witch looks awesome, and I think has a killer feature I've been
| looking for for a while on linux (slightly off topic).
|
| I use rofi on linux to surface a dialog that allows me to execute
| programs, surface an X window, or change to a different tmux
| session. Rofi natively supports the first two, the tmux
| pane/session switcher being a little 10 line extension I wrote in
| bash.
|
| I love rofi and the ability to do this, but there is a 'white
| whale' in this workflow setup that I have not been able to crack:
| A rofi dialog that displays and surfaces browser tabs. I have
| fought with chromium dev mode/flags/options on several occasions
| trying to plumb together something like this, but cannot for the
| life of me figure it out; apparently chromium does not really
| want you to get a list of tabs from outside the browser.
|
| Has anyone with a similar workflow found a solution for this? I'd
| be willing to switch browsers, or try anything really.
| mos_basik wrote:
| If I understand what you want correctly, you'd like to be able
| to hit a chord that opens rofi, type (say) "python typing", hit
| ENTER and have your system unite you and the browser tab whose
| title was the best fuzzy match for what you typed.
|
| I agree that'd be great. I don't have that solution for you,
| but I can describe the workaround I've been using in my
| environment.
|
| I use dmenu to switch between i3 workspaces by name [0].
| Probably 80% of my workspaces contain a single browser window
| with multiple tabs (i.e. I'm currently on workspace "hn" which
| contains one Firefox window with 17 hackernews-or-hn-adjacent
| tabs).
|
| My flow:
|
| - With the browser window in my current workspace active
|
| - I hit CTL+L (to focus the address bar)
|
| - I type "%python typing" (in Firefox, the % prefix makes the
| query fuzzy match open tab titles across all browser windows)
|
| - Select the tab title I want from the results and hit ENTER
| (surfaces the tab in its window and causes that tab's window to
| assign itself the X11 "urgent" flag)
|
| - Read the 2-letter workspace name that is now highlighted in
| red at the bottom of my screen (i3 highlighted it because it
| contains a window with the "urgent" flag)
|
| - Hit SUPER+C (to open dmenu with my workspace names)
|
| - Type the 2-letter workspace name and hit ENTER (to switch to
| that workspace, where the tab is surfaced and waiting for me)
|
| I do use rofi as my application launcher, though, and you're
| making me curious if it's possible to exfiltrate tab titles
| from Firefox. It'd be pretty slick to cut back from two
| chords+queries to one.
|
| 0: Reddit post I made a while back describing my setup,
| includes a video
| https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/udd0zg/i3gaps_flu...
| anileated wrote:
| I'm sure I'm in the minority, but Stage Manager addressed nearly
| all of my window management woes on the Mac.
| Veen wrote:
| I tried stage manager for about five minutes before I turned it
| off because it seriously hindered my workflow. Perhaps I should
| give it another try.
| anileated wrote:
| Had the same initial reaction. Had to tweak settings a bit
| (e.g., set recent apps to auto-hide) and create a mental
| model of window sets before it clicked.
|
| My mental model of window sets:
|
| -- A window always belongs to one set, with two exceptions:
| 1) global ephemeral windows like "About This Mac" (they
| appear in all sets on current desktop) and 2) windows
| assigned to all desktops via Dock (they appear in all sets
| _and_ on all desktops).
|
| -- You are always "in" a set, even if it's a 1-set with only
| this window alone, and you don't see any windows not in the
| current set (other than the exceptions above). You can only
| glimpse other windows via Recent applications, Mission
| Control, and so on.
|
| Managing window sets:
|
| -- Creating a window always drops you into a fresh set with
| that window alone. While jarring at first, it's key to me--
| with a new window I start doing something different and don't
| need the distracting baggage of whatever was on screen before
| that. Can always add windows later (see below).
|
| -- Any way that focuses a window now also drops you into its
| entire window set. This includes: Mission Control (which like
| before operates individual windows, not sets), [?]+tab,
| clicking on app's Dock icon, window switch from within the
| app, and so on.
|
| -- If you switch to another window set while dragging a
| window, that window becomes part of the set when you release
| the drag.
|
| -- To remove a window from a multi-window set (creating a new
| set with only that window alone), long-press the maximize
| window button and click "Remove Window from Set".
|
| Recent apps:
|
| -- "Recent applications" shows two kinds of things: 1) multi-
| window sets you created (last focused window on top), and 2)
| solo window sets grouped by application.
|
| -- Recent applications list is scoped to windows on current
| desktop and excludes the window set you are currently working
| in.
|
| -- You can interact with Recent apps in three ways: 1) click
| on a set to switch to it, focusing topmost window; 2) click
| on any app's icon to show up to 18 recently used window sets
| with any of that app's windows; 3) drag the topmost window
| from any visible set into current set.
|
| -- I set it to auto-hide, I only need it when I need to add
| another window to the current set.
|
| By the way, [?]+` now works in two ways: 1) if you are in a
| set of multiple windows, it will switch between windows in
| the set (regardless of the app); 2) if you are viewing a solo
| window, it switches between other solo windows of the app
| (close to old behavior).
|
| This all might sound complex but a couple hours in it works
| quite intuitively, I find.
| vehemenz wrote:
| I like Stage Manager, but I can't get it to play nicely with
| multiple screens and Rectangle.app. Its behavior is too
| unpredictable, and I'm not sure how to make it work. Do you
| have any tips?
| anileated wrote:
| I don't use multiple screens, and I no longer use multiple
| virtual desktops either, but I outlined my mental model of
| Stage Manager in a response to another comment if it helps. I
| do still use Rectangle occasionally.
| chrisfinazzo wrote:
| It's an interesting take, but I'm not sure how this deals with
| _multiple_ windows if all the demos show a primary, active
| window and everything else "offstage."
|
| I don't need to just see those other windows and their
| contents, I want to interact with them as well, which SM
| doesn't seem to do.
| anileated wrote:
| I found that cases where I need multiple windows at the same
| time are actually quite rare in my work. Turned out seeing
| only the window I work with right now is actually what I
| needed 90% of the time, so this default behavior is a win.
|
| For the remaining 10%, SM makes it easy to combine windows
| into a set (this is so far the only instance where I use the
| new "recent applications" widget, I set it to auto-hide so it
| never distracts me otherwise). Then with cmd+` you can switch
| between windows _in the same set_ (even if they are of
| different apps). You can also tile windows in your set with
| something like Rectangle, etc.--just make sure not to over-
| craft sets, they are ephemeral after all.
|
| The ephemeral nature of window sets used to bother me
| initially--I wanted to persist them across restarts--but
| after I realized I really focus on one window 90% of the
| time, and creating ad-hoc window sets is very quick, I no
| longer find it an issue.
| rcarmo wrote:
| But unlike on the iPad, you can't switch between sets with
| a hotkey--Apple really dropped the ball on that one.
| alin23 wrote:
| Also check out my rcmd app (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd) for
| more keyboard centric workflows.
|
| It's definitely not as powerful as Witch for windows/tabs but
| rcmd's one-key approach is instant for app switching.
|
| Witch has some ingenious features indeed: searching
| browser/editor/terminal tabs, lingering on an app to show its
| windows etc.
|
| I wish Apple would allow this kind of functionality in App Store
| apps.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| Coming from AltTab, what does Witch do better?
| drcongo wrote:
| I'm not a Witch user (found it to Windowsy), but I can highly
| recommend Moom and NameMangler from the same dev.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| Big fan of Moom. It adds light window snapping functionality
| that only reveals itself when I'm explicitly looking for it...
| no annoying snap-proposal animations or unintended snaps when I
| drag windows somewhere near a screen edge.
| oofbey wrote:
| I'm a big fan of the functionality of witch and have had it
| installed for years. But honestly I've just about given up on it.
| It keeps breaking. Mac OS of course keeps updating itself and
| very often those updates cause Witch to stop working. It seems
| like I used to be able to fix it just by re enabling a permission
| setting. (Which is fairly obnoxious that I have to do this over
| and over again - how many times do I have to authorize the same
| app?) But recently it still doesn't work after authorizing. And
| now whenever I hit the magic key combo the security dialog comes
| up and I can't fix it. At this point it just doesn't seem worth
| the hassle.
| blntechie wrote:
| I have been a long time MacOS user and the app/window switching
| never made any sense to me. Windows and Linux just does it
| better.
| WhereIsTheTruth wrote:
| macOS, the only OS that still empower its devs to do UX usable
| with a mouse and keyboard
|
| Windows/Linux on the other hand, is all about scrolling
|
| https://i.imgur.com/LYytae6.png
|
| Why does this Linux/GTK desktop program looks like an iOS setting
| menu?
|
| Compare to this, all settings available without scrolling:
| https://manytricks.com/witch/images/4/multiswitch_big.png
| citrusui wrote:
| You may be already aware of this, but macOS Ventura (maybe
| earlier versions too) changed System Preferences to work more
| similarly to iOS. Lots of scrolling and nearly all the
| checkboxes are toggle switches.
| WhereIsTheTruth wrote:
| See, you guys don't understand, they only changed the
| categories (that's understandable because they added plenty,
| similar to the permission menu), the content menu and
| controls remain the same, optimized for a trackpad and
| mouse+KB combo
|
| https://support.apple.com/en-bn/guide/mac-help/mh15217/
|
| Again, compare this with the Gnome/GTK screenshot I shared
| above..
|
| UX for vertical vs horizontal screens (desktop/laptop vs
| smartphone), macOS did it right, Gnome did it wrong and
| Windows is following Gnome's mistake
|
| Another example: https://i.imgur.com/atT4Xkg.png
|
| XFCE's file manager vs Gnome's one
|
| One optimized for trackpad and mouse/KB combo, the other is
| looking like a smartphone UX, you constantly need to scroll,
| and "tap" on huge controls, not optimized for a mouse
| pointer, and not optimized for keyboard navigation
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| The trial expires after triggering Witch 50 times, and I was only
| beginning to configure it. Trial should be a a day or two for me
| to choose if I like it or not.
| speedgoose wrote:
| How does it compare to AltTab? https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
| danvayn wrote:
| looks like it has some more features than alt tab that are
| usually covered by other programs. quick open like Alfred,
| hibernation like Franz/Ferdium.
| behnamoh wrote:
| This is what I use and would recommend. the nice thing about it
| is that you can activate the switcher using keyboard and then
| hover over any window without even clicking on it. when you
| release the keyboard shortcut, you switch to that window.
|
| it also allows me to hide certain apps from the switcher. like
| if you have a terminal, you might wanna set up a keyboard
| shortcut for that and forget about it.
| Veen wrote:
| I've found rcmd quite useful for window switching. It lets you
| use the right command key plus another key to switch
| applications; e.g., right [?]+s for Safari. It can also display a
| switcher that shows the letter associations.
|
| https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/
| eddyg wrote:
| I do something similar with Hammerspoon (which is an amazing
| app... a little bit of Lua and you can do all sorts of things
| to the OS!) - https://hammerspoon.org local
| hammerspoonHotkeys = { F = { name='Finder' },
| P = { name='1Password', alt='1Password 7' }, S = {
| name='Slack' }, M = { name='Music' }, W
| = { name='Safari' }, -- 'W' for web ... }
| for key, obj in pairs(hammerspoonHotkeys) do
| trigger:bind({}, key, function() openOrHideApp(obj) end)
| end
|
| where _trigger_ is a global _hs.hotkey.modal_ , and
| _openOrHideApp_ is a function which uses 'name' and 'alt' to
| switch to the app if it's not active, hides it if it's
| currently active, or launches it if it's not already running.
| It also uses _hs.alert.show_ to quickly (just a half-second)
| display an overlay in the middle of screen that says "Slack"
| or "Hiding Slack" or "Launching Slack".
|
| Because I'm already running Hammerspoon to do things like
| window management (hotkeys to move and resize windows), control
| my Streamdeck (without needing to run any other third-party
| software - https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.streamdeck.html)
| and to act as my default browser (so I can use URLDispatcher to
| do all kinds of "smart" things when URLs are "opened" on my Mac
| - https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/URLDispatcher.html), etc.
| it makes sense _for me_ to keep adding functionality with
| Hammerspoon instead of adding more and more "one off"
| utilities.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I do that with Phoenix: https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix
| vxNsr wrote:
| Wow this is fantastic. I was gifted a MacBook a few months ago
| and I am continually surprised to learn how many features I just
| take for granted in windows. MacOS often feels very similar to
| Linux in that the core OS is very barebones and needs a ton of
| extensions to really be useable. The difference being in Linux
| most of the extensions are OSS while in MacOS they're each $9.99.
| bosie wrote:
| Are they oss though? I am struggling to get something similar
| to bartender and little snitch on my Linux dev machine but so
| far, I couldn't even find alternatives.
| stereopixels wrote:
| For a Little Snitch alternative on Linux have you tried
| OpenSnitch? https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
| marcellus23 wrote:
| This comes down a lot to your personal expectations. As someone
| who grew up on both Mac and Windows equally, I find its Windows
| that tends to lack really basic stuff that I take for granted
| in my day-to-day Mac usage.
| sylens wrote:
| It really just comes down to a different paradigm. I agree that
| I prefer how Windows handles a lot of things and gives you a
| lot built-in these days, especially once you add PowerToys
| navait wrote:
| I purchased witch several years ago, and my main complaint is
| that it takes a long time to show all my windows if there's a lot
| of applications windows, and this did not use to be the case.
| It's fine if I'm switching between windows in one application,
| but if I say, want to show all the windows open on my computer,
| it takes 3+ seconds to display the interface.
|
| I discussed it with the Many tricks support, and apparently it's
| a problem with MacOS
| heleninboodler wrote:
| Yeah, I used to be a faithful user and I quit because of this.
| Many Tricks makes good software, but it seems the APIs they use
| for some of the window information end up getting very slow
| under certain circumstances, starting on an OS release
| somewhere around 2017 if I recall.
|
| One of my favorite things about Witch is the huge amount of
| customization you could do with it. Defining multiple switchers
| with different behaviors and different trigger keys is a nice
| feature too.
| Destiner wrote:
| Cute app, but you can already switch tabs (opt + cmd + arrows)
| and windows (cmd + `)?
| rad_gruchalski wrote:
| Cmd+`, anyone?...
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