[HN Gopher] AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS
___________________________________________________________________
AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS
Author : loughnane
Score : 269 points
Date : 2024-06-06 12:39 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| andrewla wrote:
| I'm reluctant to try this -- my experience with other attempts to
| try out tiling window managers on MacOS is that the just don't
| play nice. Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and
| the window manager is not able to wrangle them, and connecting
| external monitors is a disaster, and you end up with a situation
| where windows are overlapping in odd ways but you can't move them
| out of the way because the window manager is trying to manage
| them.
|
| Does anyone have experience with this particular one and does it
| resolve these sorts of issues?
| torstenvl wrote:
| I've never ever had that happen with Rectangle or Magnet.
| nbobko wrote:
| Hi, AeroSpace author speaking :)
|
| > Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and the
| window manager is not able to wrangle them
|
| I'm certainly biased, but no, I don't face issues like that
|
| > and connecting external monitors is a disaster
|
| Connecting and disconnecting external monitors is an important
| use case for me as well. I dedicated my time to support
| specifically this case, so hopefully it works correctly for
| other users as well
| mrgaro wrote:
| I'm a long time Amethyst user, but going to try AeroSpace
| out!
|
| Based on the documentation the toml syntax is stretched quite
| a bit to implement some logic and callbacks. Have you
| considered some scripting language to make it easier to do,
| or is the need for this kind of advanced use so little that
| it's not really a problem?
| nbobko wrote:
| When I started the project, I kept it simple, so I started
| with the static config
|
| The complexity of the config has grown since then, with the
| bigest (and, actually, the only) problem being on-window-
| detected callback as you mentioned.
|
| I've been thinking about using a scripting language like
| Lua, but I haven't made my mind yet whether it's worth it
| iyn wrote:
| > Doesn't require disabling SIP
|
| That's very interesting! I've been hesitant to use similar WMs as
| basically all required disabling SIP. Anyone knows what AeroSpace
| is doing differently that it can work alongside SIP?
|
| Edit: found this in the README:
|
| > AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP (System
| Integrity Protection). For example, yabai requires you to disable
| SIP to use some of its features. AeroSpace will either find
| another way (such as emulation of workspaces) or will not
| implement this feature at all (window transparency and window
| shadowing are not practical features)
| TachyonicBytes wrote:
| I wonder if following the mouse for focus would be doable
| without disabling SIP. It's one of the features I didn't even
| see in other macOS WM.
| feep wrote:
| It is, Yabai can do it. I am currently using autoraise. Both
| work great, barring UI weirdness of macOS.
|
| Example. Mousing over another window on the way to the
| menubar.
|
| https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise
| bashinator wrote:
| I've been searching for a sloppy-mouse-focus implementation
| for OSX for _years_. Pretty sure there's something
| fundamentally incompatible in how app windows are managed.
| lelandfe wrote:
| It's also a bummer because Terminal.app has the
| functionality out of the box: https://macos-
| defaults.com/mouse/focusfollowsmouse.html
| bashinator wrote:
| It can be implemented within apps, but not across apps
| afaict.
| speedgoose wrote:
| Looks like Hammerspoon and some lua should do:
|
| https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.mouse.html
|
| https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.window.html
| bashinator wrote:
| Not seeing a way to get the window currently under the
| mouse pointer, but this is pretty interesting - thanks!
| jamil7 wrote:
| Should be possible using AX APIs on mac, might not be all
| that performant, however.
| samatman wrote:
| The problem with focus-follows-mouse on macOS is the top menu
| bar.
|
| If you had it, and tried to mouse to the menu, the menu would
| switch out from under you.
|
| I have some notes in a file somewhere about how a Mac-native
| focus-follows-mouse could even work, because I want it. It
| would end up being a rather different implementation than the
| X Windows style.
| filereaper wrote:
| Yup there's AutoFocus which I use daily with Aerospace
|
| https://github.com/synappser/AutoFocus
| msravi wrote:
| I tried yabai but found switching between macos spaces too
| slow. I moved to aerospace and I absolutely love the workspace
| implementation. But I really love yabai's focus-follows-mouse
| feature - so is it possible to use yabai _just_ for that while
| using aerosoace for everything else i3-like?
| kcrwfrd_ wrote:
| Fwiw I have yabai configured for instant desktop switching
| msravi wrote:
| That's what I thought I did, but I can't, for example, just
| move to space 7 or something. I need to create a new space
| with a number I can't control and switch to that. That new
| workspace might not be next to the previous space I was
| working in, so I need to cycle through multiple spaces.
| Aerospace on the other hand just lets you choose a numbered
| workspace and work with that.
|
| Would love to see your yabairc if you can share.
| nocsi wrote:
| I've just started using [1Piece](https://app1piece.com/). Before
| this, I had BetterTouchTools just to mimick the window snapping.
| And years prior to that, I'd run a full dwm setup on Linux. The
| thing to understand however... is that these sort of things are a
| losing battle on macOS. Stuff like yabai/skhd break in between OS
| updates. Window management and apple is a battle you can always
| expect to lsoe
| gray_-_wolf wrote:
| I will be getting my first mac soon (I am still sad about it),
| which means I will need to figure out the WM. Currently I am
| considering yabai and amethyst. I guess now I should add
| AeroSpace to the list.
|
| If you are actually using tiling WM on mac, could you share which
| one and why?
| andrewla wrote:
| For what it's worth, I don't think there's a lot of value in
| these. I hate the MacOS environment as much as anyone, but all
| the attempts to create tiling managers have resulted in strange
| unusable quirky behavior.
|
| You're better off just sucking it up and using the native UI
| until you get sufficiently familiar with it that it rarely gets
| in your way too much. Meanwhile keep lobbying your employer
| (assuming that you are being forced into this by your job) to
| support Linux for development workstations.
| happymellon wrote:
| Completely agree with this take.
|
| No matter how sophisticated these Mac Window Managers get,
| MacOS will always mess with the windows because it knows
| better than you. That's why people buy Macs, and it's not
| going to change. If you don't like this, then you actually
| don't like Macs.
|
| It's opinionated, and it's opinions do not match yours. I
| would have liked window snapping, but instead we have 1/2
| baked split screen virtual desktops.
|
| I simply don't understand why people use them for development
| environments, the "Unix underneath" doesn't help enough in
| enough scenarios when it's hostile in so many others.
| jwells89 wrote:
| > I would have liked window snapping, but instead we have
| 1/2 baked split screen virtual desktops.
|
| There's at least non-fullscreen tiling available now if you
| hold down Option/Alt when hovering over the green traffic
| light (which also changes the corresponding Window menu
| items to "Move Window to (Left|Right) Side of Screen).
| There should probably be a toggle somewhere that makes this
| the default.
|
| > I simply don't understand why people use them for
| development environments, the "Unix underneath" doesn't
| help enough in enough scenarios when it's hostile in so
| many others.
|
| A lot of it is that the hardware is well-rounded and not as
| riddled with gambles/compromises as most other laptops are.
| Usually non-Apple laptops have at least one or two things
| that suck about them, with the most frequent being battery
| life, fan noise, and poor thermal design but include
| mediocre screen, bad keyboard, bad trackpad, bad power
| management, bad unplugged performance, bad port placement,
| and chintzy build among other things.
|
| Some percentage of users also just like macOS as it is,
| though.
| vidarh wrote:
| Fully agree with this.
|
| Used Yabai at first last time I was forced to use a Mac.
| Hated it with a passion. It was "close", but not close
| enough, and so I felt I was fighting it all the time.
|
| Ended up running most applications full-screen instead, and
| relying on tiling in iTerm2 or the applications most of the
| time instead. It helped that I was connected to a second
| monitor most of the time.
| wizhi wrote:
| I've been there, being forced to use it for work..
|
| I tried both Yabai and Amethyst and, frankly, neither provide a
| clean experience.
|
| Yabai requires disabling some OS security feature iirc, which
| may or may not be an issue for you. I seem to recall having
| issues with it, and switching to Amethyst pretty soon after. It
| might also only support BSP layout, which I dislike - stacks
| all the way.
|
| Amethyst feels a little half baked. It works well enough, but
| configuration is through a GUI and saved in some non text
| format, making it not difficult friendly. It also doesn't
| support things like moving windows between workspaces, meaning
| you need to have additional bindings for that through the MacOS
| command center or whatever it's called.
|
| Overall, I managed with Amethyst for close to 2 years, so
| that's the one I'd recommend of the two. Luckily I'm back on a
| Linux machine and can use river now. :)
|
| Good luck!
| happymellon wrote:
| > It also doesn't support things like moving windows between
| workspaces
|
| It's been a while since I used Amethyst as the Mac is now on
| complete corporate lockdown, but I remember that being the
| biggest feature I used on Amethyst. MacOS doesn't support it,
| but Amethyst did.
| tanelso217 wrote:
| I lost my Amethyst due to corporate lockdown rebuild a few
| weeks ago. MacOS window management is obnoxious without it
| and I'm much less productive due to losing my tools.
| wizhi wrote:
| I am likely misremembering, and mixing it was something
| else! There definitely was something vital I wasn't able to
| do through just Amethyst though.
| namdnay wrote:
| I'm not an expert, but isn't Rectangle the simplest and easiest
| way to manage this? I love it
| vundercind wrote:
| Hell, I'm still on Spectacle. I'll look at switching to
| something else as soon as it gives me even a single problem.
| Zero in years and years, including several years of no longer
| being updated.
| torstenvl wrote:
| It isn't i3-like, more window snapping than fractal tiling, but
| I really like Rectangle. I used Magnet previously and also
| liked it.
| Cu3PO42 wrote:
| Out of all of these, I've only tried Yabai. It's fine. Things
| mostly work like I expect them to and I rarely encounter a
| situation that isn't fixed by restarting Yabai. That said, I'm
| hardly a power user. I have not disabled SIP and instead
| simulate features that would require it as best as possible
| through other means. E.g. workspaces can be switched by
| dispatching a key combination that is handled by macOS
| natively.
|
| You can check out my configs here [0] if you are so inclined,
| but it's not super polished.
|
| [0] https://github.com/Cu3PO42/gleaming-glacier/tree/next
| bee_rider wrote:
| I wonder... this isn't what you want, but maybe just tmux in a
| full screen, or half-screen terminal (if you need a web
| browser) would suffice? Plus their built in "spaces"
| (workspaces) feature.
| feep wrote:
| Oh, I like the fake Spaces approach.
|
| I have considered trying that by minimizing windows, but would
| never get around to it.
|
| Tiling is doomed to sadness on macOS, because of lack of APIs.
| But this is probably the most performant approach.
|
| Have used yabai, but only for moving windows and focus-follows-
| mouse. Not for tiling. Because flaky (not yabai's fault).
|
| Thanks nikitabobko.
|
| Looking forward to trying it as soon as I figure out how to mod
| alt-tab to ignore all the windows (from every fake workspace) in
| the corner.
|
| Also, linked in the docs, JankyBorders. Nice.
|
| https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai
| https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos
| https://github.com/FelixKratz/JankyBorders
| freeqaz wrote:
| I get around that by using the Stack and I flip between windows
| with alt+h/alt+j
|
| Command+Tab is global window switch. The ones above are for
| "local" switching in the context of the workspace.
| feep wrote:
| Oh, I know. I use sway -- and greatly miss alt-tab (windows-
| style alt-tab), when I do.
|
| Not linux-primary right now.
|
| I can remember my linux-style stacking commands in order to
| try it.
|
| But I would want to fix my alt-tab at some point.
|
| Note: my sway (or mac) usage is basically two vertical
| windows or stacks of panes on a laptop screen. So a pretty
| simple setup.
| irth wrote:
| you can get windows-style alt-tab with https://alt-tab-
| macos.netlify.app/
| feep wrote:
| Right. Got it, love it.
|
| But it won't work with AeroSpace.
|
| I mean, it will work, but it won't work with all windows
| from _visible spaces_.
|
| Because ever window from _every space_ will be in the
| current space (tucked in the lower right corner).
| selimnairb wrote:
| Can we stop pissing and moaning about notarization? macOS isn't
| Linux and this isn't 1994. Given the cybersecurity threats of the
| world today, signing by a central authority makes some amount of
| sense for apps on consumer OSes.
| felixgallo wrote:
| What do you think signing does to prevent against 'the
| cybersecurity threats of the world today'?
| lxgr wrote:
| As long as Apple's glorious code signing scheme can still
| easily tricked by a single xattr call [1], I'm fine with it.
| I've just got a feeling that that won't be forever.
|
| [1] https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-
| tap/blob/main/Casks/...
| nbobko wrote:
| I agree that signing by a central authority makes sense. As the
| readme mentions, I don't have anything against notarization as
| a concept.
|
| I specifically don't like how painfull Apple does it. (Google
| for "notarization hell macos")
|
| This is my pet project that I do for fun and for free. Bowing
| my head to Apple every time I want to release a new version is
| not fun. Waking up in the middle of the night, because Apple
| revoked the app
| (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/167) is not
| fun.
|
| AeroSpace is a tool for developers by developers. Developers
| can audit the code and install the app from sources
| Hamuko wrote:
| I'm not going to notarise anything as long as it costs $100 per
| year.
| cybrox wrote:
| Signing by a central authority makes a lot of sense... if only
| that authority would sign off on the software being secure
| instead of the software fitting their current mood and business
| strategy.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I have been trying this for a few months now. I3 is quite perfect
| and Aerospace is a nice try, but it's very far from i3; it's
| quite flaky. I guess this is because Mac OS X doesn't actually
| allow full control like Unix WMs do?
|
| I have not found anything better though, but I will install Linux
| when it's working well on Apple Silicon. Only i3 is at least for
| me enough reason to use Linux as Mac OS X, again imho, is
| terrible window manager wise.
| jwells89 wrote:
| Having dabbled in some of this for a hobby project (not a
| window manager, but adjacent), it's because the official APIs
| to do these things with are limited. You end up relying a lot
| on undocumented private APIs and hacks, which are flaky both
| due to their undocumented internal-use nature and because the
| OS isn't designed to play nice with significant meddling with
| window/process management, which results in the OS and third
| party app frequently stepping on each others' toes.
| behnamoh wrote:
| Apple being Apple... gosh they just know how to build
| hardware but for software they just flop.
| jwells89 wrote:
| In fairness, I've encountered similar flakiness when using
| third party window/desktop manager utilities on Windows.
| Commercial OSes in general just aren't designed with that
| kind of flexibility in mind.
| JZL003 wrote:
| I use yabai pretty heavily, for the past 5 macos versions without
| disabling SIP on a work computer. I really like it, the tiling is
| flaky only maybe once every few days (I am doing yabai commands
| probably once a minute at least) so I bound a keystroke to `yabai
| --restart-service` and it always comes back immediately
|
| So I find it really pretty reliable and pretty great.
| Multimonitor is hard and I don't use it much, but having stacks
| and fast 'full-screen' to minimize is so great
|
| On some version upgrades, work antivirus thinks it's a virus so
| disables it for 24 hours, and I hate using my computer those
| days, it feels so clunky and sad
| jitl wrote:
| What is the difference in user experience between this and Yabai?
| I don't think the SIP issues for Yabai is a big one, no one I
| know who uses Yabai disables SIP, and they seem to enjoy it.
|
| Is the i3 stuff the difference?
|
| Personally I use a utility that allows resizing and moving
| windows with the mouse from anywhere on the window when holding a
| modifier combination, like Fluxbox. Not as automatic, but also
| never flaky - more like making floating much easier with less
| mouse movement than moving to a totally managed style.
| freeqaz wrote:
| I have used both extensively and I prefer AeroSpace.
|
| Multi monitor support is the killer for me, but there are other
| small wins.
|
| When you move a workspace in Yabai to a new monitor, it changes
| it's ID so you can't keep using keyboard shortcuts to access it
| (alt+2 breaks because it is no longer workspace 2, it becomes
| 11 or another number). I can move workspaces between monitors
| easily with alt+m and alt+shift+m.
|
| The other feature is that windows snap instantly without any
| Mission Control animations. That is a big one that really irks
| me.
|
| Those are the two features that I need most days and I find
| Yabai completely unusable because of the lack of workspace
| support
| Etheryte wrote:
| With Yabai you need to disable SIP if you want to interact with
| spaces in any way, change the stacking order of windows, and
| many other things [0]. If you don't use those features, you do
| you, but for many users those are core features.
|
| [0] https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki/Disabling-
| System-I...
| meter wrote:
| I've been using this for the past few months, and for the most
| part, I like it. I appreciate that it's all configured with a
| single file (no GUI).
|
| One issue: If an app uses native Mac tabs, Aerospace treats each
| tab as a window, which completely breaks the full screen
| functionality. Alacritty is one example. It's really odd.
|
| Edit: there's an open issue for this:
| https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68
| bsnnkv wrote:
| Nice to see another twm on macOS.
|
| Somehow over the past few years Windows became the more vibrant
| platform for twms (vs macOS) with developers (including myself)
| trying to push the envelope and introduce many quality of life
| features you still won't find even in Linux twms today.
|
| https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi
|
| https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm
|
| https://github.com/dalyIsaac/Whim
|
| Hopefully this new entrant will drive even more innovation in
| this space on macOS.
| bbor wrote:
| Not to drop this kind hacker's competitor, but I've been a
| happy user of https://rectangleapp.com/. Will definitely be
| checking this out instead tho, even though I've paid for
| rectangle -- any demo that has SublimeText windows in it is a
| demo I trust!
| ashenke wrote:
| I'm curious, what kind of features that are not found on Linux
| ?
| Carrok wrote:
| For one, tools like Shortcat aren't really possible on Linux
| afaict, since it relies on MacOS's fantastic accessibility
| API.
|
| https://shortcat.app/
| ssivark wrote:
| Hmm -- interesting/fantastic tool. Feels something like avy
| in Emacs, but for everything on screen.
|
| I think this should be possible in linux with a bit of work
| (erm, famous last words?) especially because the whole
| desktop environment is fundamentally open and you don't
| need to depend on this providing an API.
|
| But I think an even better approach is to have build this
| functionality using screen parsers backed by recent AI
| advances. That way, you decouple the source / rendering of
| content from the sink / consumption of content, and can
| have more flexible behavior on behalf of the end user. I
| anticipate (hope) such tools to pop up over the next few
| years.
| FranOntanaya wrote:
| Clicklock is much nicer in Windows than the awkward methods
| I've found so far with Linux.
| bsnnkv wrote:
| The biggest QOL improvements imo are found in the approach to
| the user-facing API design.
|
| Compare basic multi-monitor commands in something like
| bspwm[1] or yabai[2][3] to twms on Windows where this is
| typically handled transparently by directional `move` and
| `focus` commands understanding monitor boundaries.
|
| Besides this, Whim has implemented a very functional ctrl+p
| style command palette which provides a great interface for
| more advanced on-the-fly/one-time window manager
| interactions.
|
| With komorebi I think that having different border colours to
| indicate different types of containers is very helpful (one
| colour for single window stacks, a different colour for
| monocle containers, a different colour for stacks with
| multiple windows), as well as custom window-based work area
| offsets[4] (so if you have an ultrawide monitor with only a
| single window on a workspace, you can add offsets to the
| sides so it doesn't stretch across the whole width and give
| poor usability).
|
| It's not really any one "big thing" but rather a difference
| in approach which adds up over many small design decisions.
|
| [1]: https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm/issues/563
|
| [2]: https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/issues/505
|
| [3]: from my own personal yabai config - imo this is not
| really acceptable for a user facing API, especially for basic
| commands like focusing and moving:
|
| ``` # focus window alt - h : yabai
| -m window --focus west || yabai -m display --focus west
| alt - j : yabai -m window --focus south || yabai -m display
| --focus south alt - k : yabai -m window --focus north
| || yabai -m display --focus north alt - l : yabai -m
| window --focus east || yabai -m display --focus east
| # swap window alt + shift - h : yabai -m window
| --swap west || yabai -m window --display west && yabai -m
| display --focus west alt + shift - j : yabai -m
| window --swap south || yabai -m window --display south &&
| yabai -m display --focus south alt + shift - k :
| yabai -m window --swap north || yabai -m window --display
| north && yabai -m display --focus north alt + shift -
| l : yabai -m window --swap east || yabai -m window --display
| east && yabai -m display --focus east
|
| ```
|
| [4]: https://hachyderm.io/@LGUG2Z/112493589633823318
| malkosta wrote:
| Finally...the day has come...this look awesome!!! Loved the
| values.
| better_sh wrote:
| This is great! I find the one thing I miss the most from i3 that
| none of the macOS tiling managers seem to have is i3bar, or a
| minimal bar that displays what space I'm on, how many spaces I
| have, cpu/ram usage, etc. I've tried to find configs that emulate
| this with Spacebar [0], but haven't been able to find anything
|
| [0] https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar
| tra3 wrote:
| Sketchybar has this.
| dorian-graph wrote:
| Have you tried https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar?
| cweagans wrote:
| You can likely do this with Hammerspoon. It should be pretty
| straightforward as long as you have somewhere you can get the
| name/id of the space that you're on.
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| > Homebrew installation script is configured to automatically
| delete com.apple.quarantine attribute, that's why the app should
| work out of the box, without any warnings that "Apple cannot
| check AeroSpace for malicious software"
|
| Can someone ELI5 what this does? Does it impact AeroSpace only,
| or something globally on my Mac? Thanks!
| nbobko wrote:
| It impacts only AeroSpace
| Vegenoid wrote:
| Without looking into the installation script to verify, based
| on that description, it is only deleting an 'extended
| attribute' of the AeroSpace app. MacOS adds this attribute
| automatically to programs downloaded from the web, and prevents
| a user from running the program while it has the attribute.
|
| I frequently need to run a command like the following before
| running a downloaded program, which I'm guessing is exactly
| what the install script does:
|
| xattr -d com.apple.quarantine some-program.app
| baliex wrote:
| It only affects AeroSpace.
|
| The README links to the Homebrew install script, relevant lines
| highlighted here: https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-
| tap/blob/main/Casks/...
| maherbeg wrote:
| I'd be curious to know how it is different than Amethyst.
| Amethyst has gotten much more stable recently and I really enjoy
| using it. The text based config seems pretty nice at a first
| glance, but I'm not sure if it's worth switching.
| Avi-D-coder wrote:
| in my experience aerospace is way better in most ways.
|
| there are a few oddities, and I need to file a couple of bug
| reports, but it has made macos so much more tolerable than
| amethyst.
| matricaria wrote:
| You can do text based configuration in Amethyst too.
|
| https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/blob/development/docs/conf...
| whartung wrote:
| For folks that use the tiling window managers, what applications
| are you running? And what does a typical desktop look like?
|
| In terms of desktop layout, mind I don't use one, the Oberon
| vision comes to mind. A single, large pane, with all(?) of the
| others stacked to one side.
|
| My friend didn't use a tiling window manager, but had this
| desktop laid out as such, but all of those windows were terminal
| windows that he kept an eye on (he was our ops guy).
|
| But are folks using these layouts with their web browsers, word
| processors, IDEs, etc.?
| FranOntanaya wrote:
| I use an ultra wide screen and do both coding and video
| operations so I'm always having side by side layouts mixed in
| with tabbed windows.
|
| One typical case is navigating a file manager to grab files
| that I need to drag and drop on a web UI, or folder/URI slug
| names I need to keep copying back and forth to use on a
| workflow.
|
| Another is watching stdout/stderr of a running script and a log
| tail at the same time.
|
| Sometimes I have tabs of web, file manager and some other app
| on one side and a terminal on the other as terminal commands
| are the glue of a workflow.
|
| Or I'll be screening a video on the left and doing edits on the
| right. Or keeping notes open on the side during a conference
| call.
|
| Sometimes I'll only have one window in a virtual desktop and
| ultrawide is too much, so I just have an idle terminal window
| as padding.
|
| Not having to hunt around for windows then hunting for their
| edges helps when I'm constantly opening, closing and sizing
| terminals, file managers and so on and so forth. It simply is
| faster with tiles.
| whartung wrote:
| This will sound silly, but doesn't that hurt your neck? You
| mention you use a ultra wide screen.
|
| I have one of the "drive in theater" iMacs, and I prefer the
| windows in the center. It's big enough that if things were on
| either side, I'd have to crane my neck to focus on either
| side. I'd hate to have to do that all the time.
|
| I guess if I were to do anything "tile" wize it would be two
| smaller columns, one on the left, and one on the right, and
| then the big center as the main focus.
| gpxyz wrote:
| I don't work in programming, but in arts and academia. I
| usually have 1 "main" window in working in and at least 1-2
| more I am continually referring to, so I like to be able to
| quickly switch between a single fullscreen window and a 2
| column view. Typical workspaces for me are Zotero + Firefox +
| Word (for writing and research) and Photoshop/InDesign + Finder
| + Firefox (for design). When I do code, I like being able to
| have at least 1 terminal window side-by-side with a coding LLM.
| I usually also have a workspace with Spotify + MacPass +
| Telegram open that I refer to as needed.
| skydhash wrote:
| I'm a developer so not as much an outlier. My usual workspace
| is usually laid like this:
|
| 1. Emacs. Coding and other stuff
|
| 2. Browser. Either the web application I'm working on and other
| searches
|
| 3. Terminal. For long standing actions and other system stuff.
|
| 4 . Documentation. Mostly another browser windows.
|
| 5. Utilities. Mostly GUI related to the current project I'm
| working on (Database, API Tests,...
|
| I'm working inside a VM (macOS hosts) so I use the host
| software for other things. But if it bare-metal, I'd add a
| workspace for media, and another for communication.
|
| As you may guess, it's almost one maximized application for
| each workspace. This way I can quickly switch to it with the
| keybindings. The only time I have a proper tiling structure is
| when I need the information from both windows at once (Taking
| notes and reading a document,...). Tiling is mostly about not
| thinking about where the windows will be, not to have
| everything there at once.
|
| macOS has Spaces, but the ergonomics are bad. Especially the
| animations if you use them a lot.
| zamalek wrote:
| Hyprland here. My primary screen (and workspaces on it) is
| nearly always a single app, while the secondary has tiles -
| much like your ops friend. I would actually love a window
| manager that embeds this assumption.
| carabiner wrote:
| Man I hate the name. Has nothing to do with aerospace, but it
| does seem like a fad in software to take on some stolen valor
| from a far more interesting field.
| nbobko wrote:
| 1. The "AeroSpace" name means a space for your windows without
| friction
|
| 2. I myself consider the virtual emulation of workspaces to be
| the strongest feature of the AeroSpace. If I could disable the
| workspace switching animation in yabai or Amethyst (with SIP
| enabled, of course), I'd probably not bother myself creating
| AeroSpace. That's what the "space" part in the app name means.
| It resembles the strongest feature of AeroSpace - workspaces
| randomblast wrote:
| I used i3 for a few years when my main dev machine was Linux. I
| too am frustrated by the macOS builtin WM's shortcomings. Initial
| feedback on AeroSpace though: it's utter shite.
|
| I started it when I already had my usual number (many) of windows
| open across my usual number of spaces (lots) on my usual number
| of displays (3). First it spent 30 seconds trying to give me a
| seizure, and when it had finished I'm left with a total mess of a
| layout. Some windows 30px wide. Some windows not-quite-
| fullscreen. Some windows just randomly floating without any kind
| of recognisable pattern.
|
| Now I can't navigate around because dragging a window sends it
| flying off to the corner of a different display. None of the
| default keybindings seem to do what they say they should. The
| focussed window disappeared entirely when I tried resize mode,
| and I can't find the way out of it because that was the window
| with the instructions.
|
| I think I'll try something else.
| darksaints wrote:
| Somewhat on subject: does anybody feel like the macos-style
| application menu that is disconnected from the application window
| has outlived its welcome? I feel like apple gets so much right
| from a UX perspective, but in a world of multi-monitor setups and
| common cross application workflows, I find it absolutely bizarre
| that I might have to scroll across 2+ monitors to get to a
| dropdown menu for an application that I'm using, and sometimes
| still get to a dropdown menu for the wrong application.
| throwaway38375 wrote:
| Yes! Windows got it right IMO.
| mbreese wrote:
| I like the detached menu, but mainly because it makes the
| application window smaller with less overall decoration. With
| multiple applications open, each window having menu bar
| decorations seems cluttered to me. I like the minimalist and
| consistent nature of it all.
|
| However, it does get more complicated with multiple monitors
| and I don't know of the solution here. You're right that the UX
| falls when you're trying to work with menus across multiple
| monitors.
|
| Perhaps the right mix is doing something like the Chrome extras
| menu or if you've used VS Code on the web, where you have a
| small hamburger or (...) button that opens a context menu. Then
| you still have a menu for the application, but it's hidden
| until you need it.
| lloeki wrote:
| > in a world of multi-monitor setups and common cross
| application workflows, I find it absolutely bizarre that I
| might have to scroll across 2+ monitors to get to a dropdown
| menu for an application that I'm using
|
| These days the menubar is always on all displays, not just the
| main one?
|
| (unless maybe you have "Displays use separate Spaces"
| unchecked?)
| idle_zealot wrote:
| I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage
| windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular,
| support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions
| relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not
| able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can
| in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard
| commands to get to the window layout I want most of the time.
| Like, say I have two windows side-by-side, and I want to split
| one of them vertically. In sway I'd pop open the new window, then
| drag it to the top or bottom half of the window I want it to
| share horizontal space with, and bam, all done. With aerospace
| the best way I've found to do this is to open the new window,
| then switch all three windows into a vertical stack, then focus
| the window that was originally on the left and invoke the 'move
| left' command on it.
| nbobko wrote:
| If you have normalizations enabled, you don't need to "switch
| into a vertical stack"
|
| Given this layout: h_tiles +--
| window1 (focused) +-- window2 +-- window3
|
| `move left` will produce this layout: h_tiles
| +-- window1 (focused) +-- v_tiles +--
| window2 +-- window3
| idle_zealot wrote:
| Ah, so it does. I suppose this is an instance of my mental
| model not having adjusted.
| squigz wrote:
| For what it's worth, this video from i3 really helped me
| visualize how i3 and related WMs deal with windows -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWA8Pl57UBY
| j45 wrote:
| Thanks, I will try it out to see if it can first solve my main
| problem - I'm looking for a way on Mac for it to reasonably
| remember the screen layouts.
|
| Every time it wakes from boots, the desktop has complete
| amnesia with 3 screens.
|
| Ideally I'd be able to drive my own workspaces, and it can use
| the laptop screen only, or 2 or 3 external monitors at
| different desks (work and home).
| tln wrote:
| I've resorted to running a shell script every time I plug in.
|
| displayplacer "id:... res:2048x1330 hz:120 color_depth:8
| enabled:true scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0" "id:...
| res:3840x2160 hz:30 color_depth:8 enabled:true scaling:off
| origin:(-918,-2160) degree:0"
|
| displayplacer is very easy to set up and also gives you
| access to modes that you can't access with System
| Preferences.
| xyst wrote:
| The days of "it just works" is long gone.
| ghotli wrote:
| I use Rectangle on macos for this exact use case. Used to use
| Yabai but now Rectangle is my daily driver for this sort of
| thing. I'm going to try this one out but global hotkeys for
| my windows snapping to the right spots when I plug my laptop
| in is hard to give up
| gbhdrew wrote:
| Just want to say a huge thanks to the dev(s) here, you've
| basically solved my major pain points with macOS window
| management (especially around apple's infuriatingly broken
| implementation of virtual desktops). This stuff has been gnawing
| away at my sanity for years
| jackhalford wrote:
| I'm currently in using sway on fedora, I'm considering moving to
| macOS because of tighter integration of icloud (everything is on
| my iphone) and generally better polish of the OS. This is another
| reason to switch
| ftio wrote:
| Cool YouTube video, but: my kingdom for a screenshot!
|
| Product looks amazing. I use Divvy but will definitely try out
| AeroSpace. Great name too.
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| Is there any documentation for very beginners on how a regular
| workflow would be? Like, if I have 7 windows opened, how do I
| start organizing them with just shortkeys? I've found option+/ to
| put all of them horizontally or vertically (alternating when
| pressing twice), but not sure how to quickly make 1 of them
| bigger or select just 2.
| igorguerrero wrote:
| This looks so awesome I gonna dust off my mac mini.
|
| As a tiling wm user (Hyprland now) I always wonder how OSX users
| claim they're that productive with all those alt+tabbin' I meant
| cmd+tabbin'. Welcome to the 2010s guys!
| vmladenov wrote:
| Can you share any resources on learning to be productive with
| tiling WMs? I have tried a few times and always bounce off of
| them. I also find window overlapping to often be more intuitive
| than forcing them to squeeze into a tile.
|
| I internalized the swipe gestures (3 fingers left/right) early
| on with OS X 10.6 snow leopard and then with the Mission
| Control update (3 fingers up) I am basically always faster with
| a trackpad than any keyboard "workspace" navigation.
| gigatexal wrote:
| It's like someone was thinking of me! I've been missing such
| things on Mac. Toying with Yabai and others. Love seeing work in
| this space.
| peauc wrote:
| Yabai was not working for me, Aerospace worked out of the box.
| Great tool
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| This looks very interesting. However, how do I create a new
| container, to put a subset of windows in?
|
| It's not clear to me from the example configs, either default or
| i3-inspired. I've never used i3, though I did use AwesomeWM
| extensively about a decade ago.
|
| Edit: ah, the `join-with` command which is a superset of the
| `split` command. In the default config, alt-shift-semicolon to
| enter Service mode, then alt-shift-h/j/k/l for neighbor
| selection.
| danielfrg wrote:
| I have been using Yabai for almost 1 year now. I had learned to
| live with the transition between workspaces because I cant
| disable SIP.
|
| I just tried this. I love it. No SPI and no transitions, just
| fast switching of apps. I will probably switch to this.
|
| Thank you for your work!!
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| Is it possible to display the current layout tree (of the current
| workspace)?
|
| As I'm learning to use this, I'm having trouble conceptualizing
| how my windows are organized in the tree, and how I'm affecting
| it.
| filereaper wrote:
| I use AutoFocus which gives focus-follows-mouse with AeroSpace
| and its a good enough replacement for i3wm.
|
| Extremely thankful for both projects.
|
| https://github.com/synappser/AutoFocus
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