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AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

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Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#131

Post by 40four »

klodolph wrote: post #88
jonny_eh wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Note that you also can cycle between any window with command-tab. Press command-tab, and while holding command, press up or down arrow. This will drill into the windows for that application and let you select a specific window, without first bringing that application to the front.

Oh, nice tip! I didn’t know that one.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#132

Post by jml7c5 »

wtallis wrote: post #114
yodon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows would just have you open the file manager app when you need a file manager window. No need for the "app" to be always open. To Windows users, it feels extremely strange to have an app that's always open that you can't close.

Windows Explorer is exactly this, so this behavior is not at all foreign to Windows. The only meaningful difference in how these two UIs expose this same behind-the-scenes behavior (in recent versions) is that on Windows you have the option of removing Explorer from the taskbar if there are no open windows, while macOS Finder is always present in the dock.

That Windows Explorer is always running to show the desktop UI is something between an implementation detail and a hack. It could have been implemented as a separate program. And one can use a different file manager than Windows Explorer.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#134

Post by ahefner »

lupire wrote: post #60
jonny_eh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former Windows, but now Mac, user I find Mac's system to work just fine. Especially once you learn that cmd+~ switches between the current app's windows. Plus, 4-finger swipe up shows all the current open windows.

Works fine until half your "apps" are actually browser windows, and exhausting trying to remember which key do you use based on which app you need to switch to.

Or terminals.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#135

Post by cheeze »

klodolph wrote: post #90
krferriter wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It enables you to actually switch between windows, not between applications. If you have 3 windows of Chrome open, on Mac if you alt-tab to it it raises all 3 windows to the top of the desktop window stack, hiding any other windows which may overlap with one of these Chrome windows. This is very inconvenient if you want to be able to still see another window, say, TextEdit, you have open but it becomes hidden by Chro…

Command-tab already does this. Just keep holding command, use the up/down arrow to drill into the windows for the selected application. Play around with it you’ll figure it out. It looks like this tool just simplifies it and gets rid of the hierarchy, so you don’t have to remember which application owns the window you’re looking for.

It might already do it if you hit up and down arrow, but my muscle memory and preference is windows-style. As someone who switches between the two often, I just want consistency and prefer the windows approach.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#136

Post by dudewritingcode »

klodolph wrote: post #66
Shacklz wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

MacOS is built for people that use pointing devices, is not optimized for keyboard usage, it makes no sense for example to show Finder when you alt+tab even if is closed. If you use 2 active apps only and a bunch of background apps (a developer setup) it makes zero sense to show you these in alt+tab. This app is also configurable to decide which apps you show, not to add that will show a screenshot which is way better than an icon. This app, advertised here is godsend for Linux and Windows users that are forced to use macs at work.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#137

Post by fnord123 »

yodon wrote: post #23

For Mac users asking "how is this different from the keystrokes I already have", this app is designed to give you Windows-style switching which is subtlety but fundamentally different from OSX-style window switching. MacOS is app-centric, so you have a keystroke to switch between apps and a keystroke to switch through the windows of the app. Windows is window-centric rather than app-centric, with a unified window sta…

Floating toolbars were an interesting flourish to show off the capabilities of GUIs (Photoshop being the most famous application to take advantage of this). And with floating toolbars, the application switching model made sense. But when virtual desktops landed on the Mac, it was a ridiculous hassle to move an application to a new desktop because there's tonnes of windows to move around. Now various programmes that used to use floating toolbars have moved to use main windows that hold all the toolbars (Photoshop being the most famous application to have done this).

With multiple monitors more prevalent now, the application switching model is definitely broken. Command-tab raises all windows for an application across all monitors. This is super annoying.

I mean, even Gnome gets this wrong but at least there's a toggle to fix it. I hope Apple can come to terms with this and fix it some day.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#138

Post by JoBrad »

wtallis wrote: post #114
yodon wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows would just have you open the file manager app when you need a file manager window. No need for the "app" to be always open. To Windows users, it feels extremely strange to have an app that's always open that you can't close.

Windows Explorer is exactly this, so this behavior is not at all foreign to Windows. The only meaningful difference in how these two UIs expose this same behind-the-scenes behavior (in recent versions) is that on Windows you have the option of removing Explorer from the taskbar if there are no open windows, while macOS Finder is always present in the dock.

It’s not exactly that. It’s more like an application with two modes, with the application in one mode (the task bar mode) set as the shell. There is no instance of Explorer in file browsing mode open, waiting to show a window. You can even choose to have each instance of Explorer open in a new process, then kill them individually (including the taskbar) without impacting the other instances.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#139

Post by JoBrad »

jonny_eh wrote: post #36
yodon wrote: post #23

For Mac users asking "how is this different from the keystrokes I already have", this app is designed to give you Windows-style switching which is subtlety but fundamentally different from OSX-style window switching. MacOS is app-centric, so you have a keystroke to switch between apps and a keystroke to switch through the windows of the app. Windows is window-centric rather than app-centric, with a unified window sta…

As a former Windows, but now Mac, user I find Mac's system to work just fine. Especially once you learn that cmd+~ switches between the current app's windows. Plus, 4-finger swipe up shows all the current open windows.

I’m in the same situation. I open new browser windows all the time, to display information on one screen, and interact with something in a browser, on another screen. Having to switch the keyboard shortcuts up because certain windows are owned by a different app is quite jarring. Most of the time I just want to go back to the window I was last looking at, regardless of which app it was.

Re: AltTab – Windows alt-tab on macOS

#140

Post by klodolph »

dudewritingcode wrote: post #136
klodolph wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

MacOS is built for people that use pointing devices, is not optimized for keyboard usage, it makes no sense for example to show Finder when you alt+tab even if is closed. If you use 2 active apps only and a bunch of background apps (a developer setup) it makes zero sense to show you these in alt+tab. This app is also configurable to decide which apps you show, not to add that will show a screenshot which is way bette…

What background apps do you have? When I'm developing on macOS, the apps open are, like, Chrome, Terminal, Finder, and some music app.
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