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Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#421

Post by tnecniv »

rcarmo wrote: post #51
ralfd wrote: post #41

My go to example to explain the One True Mac Way of Window management is the “The many windows of John Siracusa” podcast from ATP a few years ago. The relevant discussion starts at 1:33:00 https://atp.fm/episodes/96 Siracusa, who grew up as a (classic) Mac user, explains his tiling and overlapping habits to Arment and Liss, who grew up as Microsoft Windows users and later switched, and they gasp in utter horror, shoc…

The extinction of OS 7 (platinum) roll-up windows is something many people miss.

Yup. For me it’s like a bookmark + a reminder.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#422

Post by zogrodea »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #283
vladvasiliu wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is how, if you have multiple windows of the same app visible, when you cmd-tab to that app, it moves all of the windows to the top of the stack. So if you want to switch between windows of two different apps, you better hide the ones you don't use.

For me it's almost the opposite. I can't cmd-tab between different windows of the same app. I can use cmd+~ to switch between windows of the same app, but I always forget that and end up cmd+tab'ing though all my apps trying to find where my second Chrome window is.

That cmd-tab behaviour sounds similar to GNOME (haven't tried other desktop environments) on Linux. There, you can use alt-tab to cycle through different types of applications but if you want to cycle through different instances of the same application, you have to use alt-` or super-` to do that. It takes some getting used to in all honesty and I don't know if I like it.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#423

Post by highmastdon »

I’m still sad about the spaces grid that’s been removed in recent versions from macOS. Som 15 years ago when I started using a MacBook unibody 13” there were grid like spaces. I usually had a 3-by-3 grid. IDE in the center, left a browser window for docs, right a browser window for preview of what I was building, bottom terminal, bottom right spotify, top right socials, and some leftovers on top and bottom left. Every app had it’s own designated space.

Now, I’m using 9 spaces, lineair unfortunately. But I’m using yabai with shkd as window manager and Alt-tab to switch between recent windows (as that’s apparently broken by design in macOS).

I’ve configured so called “modes” for create a vim-command-like way of commanding windows and focus around. Eg hyper+m goes into _m_ove mode, from there I can press 1-9 to move a window to a specific space, or shift+1-9 to move and follow, or (shift+)q to move (and follow) a window to the latest focused space. (Hyper+q in “normal” mode moves me back and forth between recent spaces.) I’ve got jump mode to go to an application by shortcut, and some app specific modes to bind key successions to shortcuts.

Oh, not trivial, hyper+enter gives me iTerm at any space

The nice thing about yabai with SIP disabled is that it’s snapping without _any_ delay, which is great when working with many windows.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#424

Post by Justin_K »

lloeki wrote: post #141

Well, because it has? Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options. Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom. These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap. And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+. So it is not "…

The fact that you had to type all this wrecked my brain.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#425

Post by Too »

s3p wrote: post #242
lloeki wrote: post #141

Well, because it has? Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options. Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom. These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap. And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+. So it is not "…

That's awful. Instead of windows where you can BAM drag a window to one side and snap it in 0.2 seconds, you have to hover over the window, wait a second, press option, wait .1 second, figure out which option you want, mouse over to it, then finally click it. That's insane.

It’s not only slow, it takes lots of precise mouse movements. I get RSI just reading about it, brrr.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#426

Post by dombesz »

dombesz wrote: post #368
jdlshore wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Default behavior of the green button click is full-screen, but option-click maximizes. The behavior of double-clicking the title bar is controlled by the "Dock & Menu Bar" settings pane. It can be configured to minimize the window instead. You can also double-click any edge or corner to maximize from that side alone. Option-double-clicking will grow both sides. I like to option-double-click my Terminal windows to max…

Apparently, this was an existing feature on older macOs-es. I used it a lot, but it has been removed as a default setting like ~8 years ago. But luckily you can still add this shortcut to macOs, this is the first thing I do when I get a fresh install: 1. Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts 2. Click the small (+) button under the shortcuts table. 3. Choose/Type the following values…

Sorry for the bad formatting, apparently I cannot edit my comment on HN anymore.

  1. Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts
  2. Click the small (+) button under the shortcuts table
  3. Choose/Type the following values in the modal:
    - Application: All Applications
    - Menu Title: Zoom
    - Keyboard shortcut: Command + Shift + M (My preferred shortcut)
  4. Click Save.
  5. Voila, now you are able to maximize any window, and pressing it again it goes back to its original size. A cool trick is that now if you hover the green (+) button on the top of any page you will be able to access that shortcut from there as well. It sits just under the "Enter Full Screen" menu option.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#427

Post by lesserknowndan »

voisin wrote: post #94
lesserknowndan wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you can. In the Settings, Display, Arrange Monitors you drag the menu bar to the screen you want to have the dock.

That’s for the menu bar. I am talking about the dock. It goes to whichever screen you are on as soon as your cursor is at the bottom. So when you have a large screen up top and a smaller laptop below, as you move the mouse from big down to small, you often hit the “bottom” of the big and the dock reverts to the top screen. You cannot make it stay on one screen or show on both.

Ah yes, I realised that was what you meant after I posted.

Though, in fact, it doesn’t really affect the menu bar at all. Rather, it determines where your desktop icons will live; and it is probably used to determine the default desktop the dock is on when you do a cold boot - must test that.

Like you imply, I’d very much prefer it if you could drag the dock to a specific display and have an option to prevent the moving behaviour you mention. Would also be nice to be able to drag some icons to one of the Arrange Displays screens to indicate where you want your icons to live.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#428

Post by bombolo »

eastbound wrote: post #324
paulryanrogers wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME it's the opposite

Last time I’ve tried Windows, there were ads in the start menu. And when I tried Ubuntu, they switched from Gnome to Unity, so I ragequit. Also Ubuntu had ads for Amazon in its start menu.

It sounds like you haven't tried ubuntu for 5-7 years.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#429

Post by hackernewds »

delfinom wrote: post #232
rhaway84773 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So an expired patent which was previously owned by IBM is why Apple cannot have windows tiling but Windows and Linux have had for decades?

It's assumed Microsoft paid the troll toll (probably 2 decades ago). Linux is a complicated field to litigate anyone over a patent. It does happen just not easily compared to suing a big corp. But o god I found more cancer: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20110099512 Splitting one monitor into two virtual monitors is patented. Fuck you LG.

How can such general technologies be privately patented? What if someone patented the QWERTY keyboard?

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#430

Post by hackernewds »

mvdtnz wrote: post #117
based2 wrote: post #109

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6661436B2/en Method for providing window snap control for a split screen computer program GUI https://patents.justia.com/patent/6661436 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250201392 https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/07/gnome-shell-quarter-tili...

Patents can be licensed.

Yet HN biases to Apple = good, Google = evil
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