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Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

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Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#41

Post by ken »

Despite the readme ("Fast"!), it's pretty sluggish for me. Mission Control is instantaneous, and this takes 1-2 seconds to display.

It also doesn't seem to support any form of drag-n-drop, which is (IMHO) the huge advantage of the Mac's command-tab and Mission Control. I can drag anything to anywhere, even if I'm not seeing its eventual target yet. Nor does it seem to support command-H/Q, or play well with Spaces.

It's cool that you made your own switcher, but in terms of everyday usability, this feels like it gives up a dozen features of the built-in one I use a hundred times a day, in exchange for one nifty new feature (view all windows + keyboard control).

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#42

Post by davidmurdoch »

temporallobe wrote: post #14

I used to think I needed a third-party app for window switching in macOS, until I discovered Command + ` (back-tick) shortcut- which switches between windows of the sane app. Now I use it combination with Command + Tab and my workflow is so much easier. In fact, I wish Windows had this feature sometimes, but I do think Windows’ window switching is better and more intuitive.

I don't use Mac, but do use Windows. This sounds like Windows' Alt+Tab (switches windows/apps) vs Ctrl+Tab (switches between tabs of an app). Is it not the same?

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#44

Post by thiht »

donatj wrote: post #40

Do people know about CMD+Tilde to switch windows within an app? CMD+Tab to the App and Tilde to the Window? It’s not mentioned in the READMEs description of how macOS tab switching works, so I’m curious if the author knows.

That's not really the same thing, it's a second shortcut for basically the same action. It's really not that good, it's far away from Tab and I don't ever remember that it exists. I remapped it to Option+Tab but it's not good either.

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#45

Post by donatj »

thiht wrote: post #44
donatj wrote: post #40

Do people know about CMD+Tilde to switch windows within an app? CMD+Tab to the App and Tilde to the Window? It’s not mentioned in the READMEs description of how macOS tab switching works, so I’m curious if the author knows.

That's not really the same thing, it's a second shortcut for basically the same action. It's really not that good, it's far away from Tab and I don't ever remember that it exists. I remapped it to Option+Tab but it's not good either.

Far away from tab? It’s a single key up, at least on a US Qwerty keyboard.

Update: Looking into non-us keyboards, this is way less convenient. Italian keyboards don’t even have a tilde? How do they program?

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#46

Post by kristiandupont »

rjblackman wrote: post #33
ComputerGuru wrote: post #23

That’s funny. I wrote a utility to bring macOS-style window switching for Windows 10 a few years ago: https://neosmart.net/blog/2017/easy-window-switcher/ (Don’t worry, it’s still updated and maintained.) Also submitted as another Show HN, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, because why not? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21255305

thanks I've been looking for something like this. once you understand the cmd-tab, cmd-` behaviour from macos, you realize microsoft made the wrong ui decision with their alt-tab.

This is certainly not the realization that I have reached.

To me, "app" is an arbitrary grouping that I don't really care about. I have little mental projects in my head with a couple of windows related to them. That could be a browser window and an instance of vscode. The fact that I might have another set of windows that happen to use those same apps doesn't mean that I want them to pollute my z-index when switching back and forth.

Yes, I know about spaces or multiple desktops or whatever but for some reason those don't sit will with me.

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#47

Post by Brometheus »

K0SM0S wrote: post #30
rubyn00bie wrote: post #5

I'm excited to give this a try, though I wonder if there's a way to replace command tab with it instead of control tab. This little bit of UX is seriously one of those things you notice in Windows, if you're primarily a Mac user, and go "holy shit, I'm missing out." Windows 10, faults aside, actually does have some pretty clever UI/UX in spots that I really wish Apple would just "steal," because it (MacOS) sort of fe…

Wait until you discover some basic features of KDE or Gnome (especially the former) on Linux then. Using KDE, both MacOS and Windows 10 feel like it's 2009 all over again, by comparison. I just don't understand why MS and Apple don't steal the best stuff, it's literally 'free' as in beer, and so much more important to a good UX compared to the slew of useless features both these commercial vendors keep on piling up..…

MacOS has custom shortcuts for everything.

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#48

Post by lwouis »

donatj wrote: post #40

Do people know about CMD+Tilde to switch windows within an app? CMD+Tab to the App and Tilde to the Window? It’s not mentioned in the READMEs description of how macOS tab switching works, so I’m curious if the author knows.

Author here.

I'm familiar with this. I have rebinded these, but basically I use them everyday for tab switching, for example within 1 chrome window, of within 1 terminal window.

The reason I made this window-switcher is that sometimes I have something I know I opened a while ago, but I don't want to think about which app holds it, then use the macOS app-switcher (command-tab) to switch to that app, then select the tab/window (with the mouse, or by cycling alt-`).

I want a big mosaic with my windows, and instantly identify and focus on that window I remember the visual traits of.

macOS offers exposé for that purpose, but it is unfortunately not keyboard operable. Also I prefer the Windows approach of having a the thumbnails on a timeline so my eyes have some references instead of scanning the whole screen every time with exposé.

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#49

Post by lwouis »

dvcrn wrote: post #38

I’ve been using hyperswitch [0] for ages which does something like that. The killer feature for me is to hide windows that are not on my current desktop. I have virtual spaces for social and chats and really don’t want to ever see these windows when I’m on my programming space 0: http://www.bahoom.com/hyperswitch

Author here.

I drew inspiration from HyperSwitch. Unfortunately, it is no longer maintained and is not free or OSS software, so I couldn't take over.

Specifically, I wanted to improve on some points:

* visual clarity * size of the thumbnails * size of the app icons

It's a shame it's not on github because the customization available through the preferences is great, and the product is great overall. It's one of those projects where I'm guessing the author is making no money and could release the code without any loss. He just probably forgot about it, unfortunately

Re: Show HN: Alt-tab-macos – Windows-style alt-tab on macOS

#50

Post by keybits »

nikivi wrote: post #7

I use https://contexts.co for app switching as it supports fuzzy searching windows

I love Contexts it has some great features.

I was over the moon to discover that it allowed me to cmd-tab to a Finder window even if it was minimised! (Native macOS cmd-tab does not raise a Finder window even though the application is running.)

Switching between Windows of the same application without needing to resort to cmd-tilde is also nice. Lots of customisation and power user options available in the settings.

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