Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again • Hacker News Board

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#271

Post by firexcy » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 6:44 AM UTC

nstart wrote: post #146

tambourine_man wrote: post #43

Something I've been noticing lately is the disappearance of the “power user”. Someone who's not a programer, but has learned lots of smart and efficient ways to getting their computer work done over the years. Shortcuts (keyboard or otherwise), click-hold-cmd-tab-drop or similar patterns, tags/labels for deep file organization, etc. It seems like there's now a much wider gap between the smartphone tap-only user and…

Is it just possible that the workflow of a power user has changed now while still retaining the core value of finding smart and efficient ways to get work done? Some examples that come to mind: The productivity industry is huge. Pop into the YouTube rabbit hole of people demonstrating how to use tools to be more productive, and you’ll stumble into a community that is bending every tool to basically serve their person…

I respectfully don't consider the creators you described as "power users" in Parent's sense. What they do are mostly "productivity porn", i.e., fiddling with tools in a vacuum, without real professional contexts, and severing flaunting, sensual purposes. It's writing scripts for automating errands that I consider power user's workflow; decorating zettelkasten "gardens" filled with teaching from yet another productivity guru -- not so much.

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#272

Post by firexcy » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 6:52 AM UTC

underwater wrote: post #12

The article paints command palettes as a return to terminal inputs. However there are two massive differences. Firstly, the use of fuzzy search and natural language makes the commands discoverable. Secondly, there is a feedback mechanism that shows what the command will do before it's run. Together, these massively lower the learning curve.

I'd like to add a third, pro-terminal point, that cli tools are inherently ready to be scripted, piped, executed in batch and in parallel, none of which are common in gui apps with or without command palattes.

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#273

Post by firexcy » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 6:55 AM UTC

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #13

Every macOS application has a command palette in the help menu: command-shift-/ will bring it up and you can incrementally search all the commands in the menus.

There is also a lovely utility called Paletro which extracts menu items for arbitrary apps and thus provides a universal command palette interface.

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#274

Post by vort3 » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 7:24 AM UTC

Helmut10001 wrote: post #214

The same idea applies to Keypirinha [1], a small tool to open Apps etc. on Windows by typing. E.g. hit ALT+Space, type F.. and it'll immediately suggest Firefox, based on your previous use patterns. No menus, no clicking, no mouse. Just awesome. [1]: https://keypirinha.com/

Finally some appreciation for my favourite thing. Once you go Keypirinha, there's no going back.

First thing I install on any machine I use.

Have you seen PackageControl?

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#275

Post by Helmut10001 » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 7:57 AM UTC

vort3 wrote: post #274

Helmut10001 wrote: post #214

The same idea applies to Keypirinha [1], a small tool to open Apps etc. on Windows by typing. E.g. hit ALT+Space, type F.. and it'll immediately suggest Firefox, based on your previous use patterns. No menus, no clicking, no mouse. Just awesome. [1]: https://keypirinha.com/

Finally some appreciation for my favourite thing. Once you go Keypirinha, there's no going back. First thing I install on any machine I use. Have you seen PackageControl?

Nice, thanks! So far I use chocolatey [1]. It is good, although some apps tend to be outdated (I can live with that, for the moment, it is not that worse yet). Will definitely keep in my Package Control.

[1]: https://chocolatey.org/

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#276

Post by Helmut10001 » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 8:00 AM UTC

Helmut10001 wrote: post #275

vort3 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally some appreciation for my favourite thing. Once you go Keypirinha, there's no going back. First thing I install on any machine I use. Have you seen PackageControl?

Nice, thanks! So far I use chocolatey [1]. It is good, although some apps tend to be outdated (I can live with that, for the moment, it is not that worse yet). Will definitely keep in my Package Control. [1]: https://chocolatey.org/

Apologies, I think you referred to Keypirinha-PackageControl [1].

Did no know this. Thanks!

[1]: https://github.com/ueffel/Keypirinha-PackageControl

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#277

Post by jrootabega » Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 10:13 AM UTC

tonglil wrote: post #53

The worst thing about this site is it hijacks ctrl-f. Don't do that.

Yeah, I was going to comment that, like the article mentions, it seems I can search for anything...except for the text in the article.

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#278

Post by thrower123 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 1:42 PM UTC

jakear wrote: post #61

wodenokoto wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the best features of OSX is that programs have menu bars. I didn't even know they had removed the menus from VS Code on other platforms. I still can't find anything in word, except on mac, where there is an actual menu. Anyway, the removing of menus was not caused by the addition of command palettes. I think the history is that microsoft believed icons was easier than text, so they made the ribbons, and then f…

VS code has menus on all platforms. All platforms also provide native menus. (Work on VSCode)

The problem is that there is nothing in the menus

Re: Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again

#279

Post by domoritz » Mon, Dec 06, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

rz2k wrote: post #63

seanwilson wrote: post #42

On Windows, you could press ALT to navigate the menu bar: each menu item would have a letter underlined to tell you how to select it, and when you picked a letter the menu would expand and each new item would have an underlined item etc. So you quickly discover and commit to muscle memory that ALT + F + S would select File then Save. This worked for dialog pop-up options as well so you didn't have to click. You can't…

Especially in Excel, using the keyboard to do everything is vastly superior in Windows. However in MacOS `command-shift-/` (⌘?) immediately shifts focuses to the help menu where you can begin typing to navigate directly to any command that appears in an application's menus, without needing to know where the command is hierarchically organized. It's very fast, and seems to work everywhere. I have Karabiner-Elements co…

Could you share your config? I couldn't find your modification on https://ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/.