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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

#51

Post by lwouis »

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..…

For many of the things you list, you may want to have a look at https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm

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

#52

Post by lwouis »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #42
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?

* alt-tab on Windows is for finding a window within all apps. This is the one I cloned for macOS

* alt-` on macOS or ctrl-tab on Windows is to cycle between tabs/windows of the current app

* command-tab on macOS is to cycle between apps (the app will then elect which window to present the user)

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

#53

Post by ymolodtsov »

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 shortcut doesn't work at all when you have windows of the same app scattered across multiple spaces.

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

#54

Post by lwouis »

ken wrote: post #41

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…

> it's pretty sluggish for me

Did you take into account the 200ms that's purposefully added? The behavior of alt-tab on windows is also: if you press fast (within 200ms) you don't get a UI but the switch will happen. After holding alt for > 200ms, the UI is displayed. Taking that into account, does the UI display after a delay significantly longer than 200ms? Please open a ticket if it does, with your hardware specs.

> It also doesn't seem to support any form of drag-n-drop

That's a great idea! Please open a ticket

> Nor does it seem to support command-H/Q, or play well with Spaces.

There are 2 tickets opened currently for these 2 things. Hopefully they get implemented soon

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

#55

Post by some_developer »

lwouis wrote: post #49
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…

I applaud this, I really do.

I'm also worried about HyperSwitch. When I converted to OSX half a decade ago, coming from Windows, this was the one app which I needed to be able to say "I can use this machine".

I can't comprehend how people otherwise can organize their things; it's just not my thing.

Also Tilde-Tab is the killer; Windows really missed out here.

I looking for a replacement for the same reason: the uncertainty of the future of this app.

The author seems to keep it alive, but it has (or had?) timebombs and once a year the author had to release a new patch version due to this.

I tried contact the author to throw money at it, to make sure I can have this as long as I use OSX, but he didn't really respond to that.

However, what can I say, I still prefer HyperSwitch (HS).

- HS is much faster "coming up", this is essential for me. I want to quickly use this. Basically I configured HS to be instant, no delay. I can live with the flashes, actually doesn't really bother me - HS supports CMD-Tab and Tilde-Tab; I need both. And in practice they work amazingly well for me. Tile-Tab is when I strictly need to jump between in-app windows. CMD-Tab can do both, in fact. Jump between apps or within the same apps window.

Also CTRL-Tab hurts to hit combined with TAB.

Anyway, this was on my mind for some time and there was nothing where I could mention it to similar thinking people so I already apologize if this seems inappropriate as a feedback for the hard work you put into it!

thanks

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

#56

Post by lwouis »

aasasd wrote: post #26

I'm using HyperSwitch that has the same feature, only on alt-tab. But! It also replaces the cmd-backtick shortcut with a similar overlay for the current app's windows. I find that great, because the native Mac order of switching windows is bonkers, while HyperSwitch employs the last-used order. The alt-tab feature in HS also has a flaw: if you switch to an app via the dock icon (or possibly by clicking on one of its…

> The alt-tab feature in HS also has a flaw: if you switch to an app via the dock icon (or possibly by clicking on one of its windows), all windows of that app become ‘recently used’ in the alt-tab menu. I'm guessing this might be a behavior of MacOS, and that you might run into the same problem

I'll test this, thanks for the heads up! Windows recently used order comes from the OS in my current implementation (I'm not spying on the whole system and keeping track; the OS is giving me a list of most-recent first windows). That may indeed affect my app too

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

#57

Post by lwouis »

imkieren wrote: post #16

I like this idea a lot, just tried it now however and the UI is a bit too slow for how fast I like to switch between apps, espically on multiple desktops - takes about a second to show up and swaps to the active monitor instead of staying on the main like command+tab does. Will follow this!

For the slowness, could you please check my reply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21256353

For the active monitor issue, I have never tested on multi-monitors (I personally switched back to single-monitor after years of multi). Could you please open a ticket? It may be an easy update

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

#59

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#60

Post by mollusk »

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.

I didn't, and when I tried it out, it wasn't working for me, so I looked it up and apparently others have had the same issue. [0] The Shortcut was set to cmd+` in system preferences, but it didn't do anything. Manually entering cmd+` as the shortcut fixed it.

0: https://superuser.com/questions/186863/command-backtick-isnt...

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