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AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

alt-tab-macos.netlify.app

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Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#61

Post by klodolph »

zamadatix wrote: post #55
klodolph wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The difference is largely a historical artifact of the Macintosh operating system not originally supporting "multitasking." This is a nice story, but reading on it seems like you're saying that the way app switching works on Windows as the Obvious and Correct thing to do, and that the Macintosh way of doing things is nothing more than a choice that was made too long ago to change. Honestly, that's absurd. The Macin…

What's the connection between the menu bar and window switching?

On a Mac, you want to be able to switch the foreground application. This is what command-tab does, it switches the foreground application.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#62

Post by 40four »

jonny_eh wrote: post #39
40four wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your detailed explanation, I came to the comments for exactly this reason. “How is Windows ‘Alt-tab’ any different”. I hate to say, I’m still not following you :) I have spent plenty of time developing of both Mac & Windows systems. I still can’t think of any difference in behavior. What you said In Windows ”with a unified window stack so a single keystroke (Alt-Tab) always takes you to the previous wind…

Let's say you have Firefox and Chrome open, each with two windows. alt+tab on Windows cycles between all 4. cmd+tab on Mac cycles between each apps most recently focused window. Hold cmd and press tab on a Mac, notice that it doesn't even show windows, it shows app icons.

Ahhh… okay I get it now. I’m a little slow sometimes :)

That’s a good example. So “Cmd - tab” brings all the windows of a particular app to the forefront, but shows the most recent, while the others are ‘buried’. Then requiring the “Cmd - `” to dig out the older ones.

Yeah it’s subtle, but I see the difference now, thanks for setting me straight!

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#63

Post by azca »

Have been using this for a few years and the most amazing usecase is being able to switch between multiple chrome windows, just like windows used to let me do "same app, different window instances", with a preview!

The other thing that works well with this for a life upgrade on a mac is finicky (GitHub.com/johnste/finicky )

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#64

Post by beepbooptheory »

Am I huge fan of i3wm, but have to use Windows for my job (which is not a tech job in any way). At a certain point I realized that Alt-Tab for switching and Meta-Left/Right for the half screen tiling is totally fine and pretty much all I need to get a sufficiently familiar flow. I still keep i3wm on my personal laptop because its a much smaller screen.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#65

Post by nick_ »

zamadatix wrote: post #55
klodolph wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The difference is largely a historical artifact of the Macintosh operating system not originally supporting "multitasking." This is a nice story, but reading on it seems like you're saying that the way app switching works on Windows as the Obvious and Correct thing to do, and that the Macintosh way of doing things is nothing more than a choice that was made too long ago to change. Honestly, that's absurd. The Macin…

What's the connection between the menu bar and window switching?

There isn't one. The two are orthogonal.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#66

Post by klodolph »

Shacklz wrote: post #58
klodolph wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The difference is largely a historical artifact of the Macintosh operating system not originally supporting "multitasking." This is a nice story, but reading on it seems like you're saying that the way app switching works on Windows as the Obvious and Correct thing to do, and that the Macintosh way of doing things is nothing more than a choice that was made too long ago to change. Honestly, that's absurd. The Macin…

> This is a perfectly reasonable justification for having a foreground application. Except when you start having multiple monitors. Then it's an utter mess, and I have no idea how the Mac-enthusiasts are putting up with it. And as far as I'm aware, most actually kind of don't - the few mac-enthusiasts that I know all use their customized setup that heavily relies on third-party-tools.

Been using multiple monitors with macOS for at least a couple decades at this point. I switch back and forth between macOS, Windows, and Linux regularly—so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on experiences from other OSs. My macOS setup is completely stock these days. I don’t see what the problem is, could you elaborate?

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#68

Post by zamadatix »

klodolph wrote: post #61
zamadatix wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the connection between the menu bar and window switching?

On a Mac, you want to be able to switch the foreground application. This is what command-tab does, it switches the foreground application.

I'm on a Mac right now but I'm still having trouble understanding the relation. Say I want to switch the foreground application so I press command-tab, I get that, but how does that relate to menus being inside or outside the application?

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#70

Post by klodolph »

alphachloride wrote: post #54
klodolph wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The difference is largely a historical artifact of the Macintosh operating system not originally supporting "multitasking." This is a nice story, but reading on it seems like you're saying that the way app switching works on Windows as the Obvious and Correct thing to do, and that the Macintosh way of doing things is nothing more than a choice that was made too long ago to change. Honestly, that's absurd. The Macin…

With window-specific menus, I can directly click on and open the menu button of another app/window without first having to focus it first to see the menu options. I find that to be more intuitive. I have always been a windows user and my intuition was shaped accordingly. So to me that is the obvious and correct thing to do.

I find it faster to use the keyboard. On the Mac, I can switch to the browser or terminal and open a new window with cmd-tab and followed by cmd-N.
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