[HN Gopher] Show HN: Robata, macOS window selector: put it on th...
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Show HN: Robata, macOS window selector: put it on the grill
Hello HN, This is a macOS app that allows you to see all your open
windows on each monitor and select the one you want. It also lets
you view the current state of things like email or chat windows,
terminal processes, and more. You can use "cmd" and the key above
the tab key for alt-tab like behaviour. You can also toggle the UI
by resting a finger on the corner of your trackpad. I also wrote
some dev details here: https://madebyenzo.com/#robata
Author : emadda
Score : 26 points
Date : 2024-08-19 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (robata.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (robata.app)
| fn-mote wrote:
| I recommend adding more static content instead of just the video.
| Did not watch.
| callumgare wrote:
| I'm in bed at the moment and tried to watch the video but
| stopped as soon as I realised it needed audio to be understood
| for fear of waking my partner. It does look like a cool app
| though! Maybe some gifs with captions for each feature would be
| helpful?
| liminalsunset wrote:
| Would also recommend trimming the silence off of the beginning
| of the video and show b-roll in the background while
| introducing the functionality of the app.
| LorenDB wrote:
| This is the embodiment of the problem of macOS. A $29 app for
| something that Linux does for free. To be clear, this looks like
| a neat app, but I'll stick with Linux.
| lylejantzi3rd wrote:
| "Free," provided you can spend a month trying to get it to
| work.
|
| Linux is only free if you don't value your time.
| LorenDB wrote:
| But it doesn't take a month. This feature (or something very
| similar to it) is bundled out of the box with KDE Plasma.
| callumgare wrote:
| I don't think some asking for some money for the time and
| effort they put in to build an app is such a bad thing.
| LorenDB wrote:
| No, it's not. The problem is that for many people, getting a
| good experience on macOS requires buying various apps like
| this one to fix up the OS.
| hysan wrote:
| Not saying one OS is better than the other, but couldn't you
| say the reverse for other DE features? Except instead of money,
| it's time. For example, monitor independent dynamic workspaces
| with 1:1 touch gesture controls.
| tpmoney wrote:
| And then when Apple adds it to the existing OS functionality
| demoed at the beginning of the video, we can have a different
| embodiment of "the problem of macOS", and look forward to
| articles about how Apple is "sherlocking" small developers
| again.
|
| More seriously I don't understand what the problem is here. Is
| the problem That some functionality or another wasn't built
| into the OS? Most things "linux" does aren't built into "linux"
| or even "gnu/linux", they're a distribution composed of both
| some combination of linux kernel, base tooling apps and then
| improved UX apps on top of that, all of which will vary greatly
| in what functionality they provide out of the box. What makes
| this particular app and functionality a critical piece that an
| OS should provide?
|
| Is the problem that the developer is charging money for their
| work? Why is that a problem? For the life of me I don't
| understand why software developers seem so hellbent on
| devaluing their own work. Why is it outrageous to spend $30 for
| something like this if the built in window management
| functionality doesn't suit you? If you're broke, or live
| somewhere where $30 USD is a lot of money, sure you might be
| annoyed that you either need to code this up yourself, or dig
| for someone offering a free replacement, but if you're not
| either of those, $30 is a hair over dinner for 2 at a fast food
| restaurant these days. It's (likely less than) a tank of gas.
| It is 1 hour of work at the median US developer salary of $79k
| / year. If you could code something like this up in less than
| an hour, maybe it's not worth your time, but if you can't, it's
| a screaming deal if this is something you need.
|
| Software is worth something, human labor goes into it, and
| those humans need to eat and pay their bills. Maybe big
| corporations with deep pockets and huge recurring revenue
| streams have warped our views a bit with the amount of software
| they can give away for free. Certainly the amount of benefit we
| have all received from countless people volunteering their time
| away at various open source project has spoiled us some. But
| those people can only volunteer their time because somewhere,
| someone else is paying them for other parts of their time. If
| we the developers constantly treat our labor as if it has no
| value, why would we expect anyone else to treat it otherwise?
| daneel_w wrote:
| Isn't that an absurd stretch? It's not as if the "embodiment"
| of one's choice between Linux vs macOS falls entirely upon
| these mere functions contained in this one app...
|
| Additionally, almost everything this $29 app does are things
| that macOS already provided out of the box for close to 20
| years already, before Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon and various
| compositors got inspired. You can already set up hotkeys to
| show all windows on the current space you're viewing, and to
| cycle through all windows of the currently focused application,
| and more.
| Razengan wrote:
| macOS also does some things for free that you need to, or had
| to, pay for on other OSes. The quick screen recording for
| example.
|
| Some of the complaints of the app's author are also not
| accurate:
|
| > _" Expose" does not work well when you have more than 3
| windows on a space._
|
| I have "Hot Corners" set to "Mission Control" and "Application
| Windows", and when I fling the mouse to that corner, I can see
| 6 windows of the browser just fine right now, and I have
| grouping enabled in Mission Control, showing 8 windows. If I
| scroll up on a window group, the windows spread out.
|
| All in all, it's not that bad out of the box as the author
| makes it out to be, and definitely not bad enough to make me
| want to suffer all the other jank of Linux or Windows :)
| triwats wrote:
| Looks neat! Awesome stuff, the keybindings are great to be
| included in the first releases too.
| lwouis wrote:
| Hi OP,
|
| I'm the author of AltTab (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/), a
| popular window switcher for macOS, imitating Windows famous
| alt+tab shortcut. I know for a fact how hard it is to implement
| what you did. It looks very nice, well done!
|
| I see you ran into the issue of not being able to detect windows
| from other Spaces. Apple introduced it in macOS 12.2. If you're
| curious, you can see the vast efforts we've deployed trying to
| find a workaround: https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-
| macos/issues/1324. I wish some retro-engineering genius would
| solve this. We haven't been lucky so far. Of course Apple could
| fix this all in an instant with a new API, but that's very
| unlikely to happen.
|
| Thank you
| simonhamp wrote:
| Looks really good and keen to try it out! One thing I've been
| itching for for ages is a way to name spaces... if I could put a
| label at the top of each column, I'd be all over this!
| mcint wrote:
| I guess there's filtering for something beside interest in the
| functionality, 55s into a 1m44s video before seeing the interface
| is not good.
|
| The concept sells itself for those interested. Instead of just
| twitter, in 3 Windows in each of 4 Spaces, apps (or at least
| differing websites) with matched purposes, or themed background
| colors, should be used for the demo. Don't bury the lede -- more
| than halfway into the video introducing it.
|
| 1) show what it offers, 2) show how apple's native spaces falls
| short.
|
| I think people can give spaces names, so showing that name might
| help with maintaining their workflows.
|
| Time-cost costs users, costs revenue. Good luck!
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