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Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#81
post #57
post #55

From my relatively short experience but ongoing with Mac, MacOS lacks a lot of features that Windows has. It has many inferior options that people just accept. Some people find third party software or modifying plists to bend the operating system to their will. As much as I hate many many many design choices in Apple's ecosystems, I adjust where I can and move on.

Like what? I use both every day, hard to think of any major features for my usage other than snapping that Mac OS lacks.

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Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#83
post #41

My go to example to explain the One True Mac Way of Window management is the “The many windows of John Siracusa” podcast from ATP a few years ago. The relevant discussion starts at 1:33:00 https://atp.fm/episodes/96 Siracusa, who grew up as a (classic) Mac user, explains his tiling and overlapping habits to Arment and Liss, who grew up as Microsoft Windows users and later switched, and they gasp in utter horror, shoc…

I have 14 terminal and 25 browser windows open (>5000 tabs among all of them — a slightly embarrassing number). :D

Edit: only 1 13' monitor too

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#84
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re talking about the desktop OS, not Apple Vision Pro, which isn’t even out yet. Snapping makes lots of sense for a 2d desktop OS.

Only if your monitor is too small. Snapping makes no sense on my 5k2k ultrawide, for example.

That’s when you need it the most, so you can tile apps quickly.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#85
post #79
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Peek at desktop - Quick hide-all-windows to copy something from your desktop to your clipboard, then bring everything back - Alt-tab, especially when it comes to apps with multiple windows, and windows in different states, such as minimized - A modern/fully-featured default web browser without a locked down extension ecosystem. - A start menu for seeing all your applications - A taskbar with application grouping -…

Desktop peek: Part of “Mission Control”: spread thumb and 3 fingers, or press Fn+F11. Alt tab: press cmd-tab to cycle applications, then cmd-` to cycle windows of that application. This typically has better number-of-keypress to get the window you want compared to Windows alt-tab which requires iterating over all windows in the worst case. Browser: Safari is fits your criteria Start menu to see all apps: this is call…

Also for desktop peek you can customize “hot corners” to show the desktop when you put your cursor in one of the corners.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#86
post #34
post #5

Just use Rectangle app https://rectangleapp.com/

I started with rectangle but now prefer moom. https://manytricks.com/moom/ It integrates in the way I would expect the native feature to work: hover the green button for a snapping palette.

Rectangle integrates the way I expect window snapping to work: with easy and sensible keyboard shortcuts. They keys are much easier to aim than the tiny green circle on the corner.

I'm not saying moom doesn't have those, I just haven't used it and Rectangle serves my purposes perfectly well.

To each their own, of course. Just trading anectodes. :)

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#87
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alt-tab to switch between browser tabs in Edge is new, a setting that you can turn off, and in some cases, it's actually very useful, since you can limit the number of tabs. It lets me treat recent tabs the same way as I would treat recent applications, which many websites effectively are. But anyways, that choice is made available to you. I don't currently use multiple monitors, but I do use virtual desktops, and...…

I want all these turned off by default and not need to stumble through trying to figure out how to disable them. Windows now feels like using Android where you need to google first to figure out how to modify something. In terms of virtual desktops, having independent control per monitor is so elementary that it makes the feature pretty useless otherwise.

I want it all, I want it now.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#88
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the Windows choices are horrendous. Alt-tab to switch apps actually switches between browser tabs in Edge. It's really confusing. There's a litany of other problems too like virtual desktops move all screens instead of just the screen with the cursor, so it's unusable. There's also a case where certain actions with the mouse cause all the windows to vanish. I mean, what was that. Then there's that window hist…

Alt-tab to switch between browser tabs in Edge is new, a setting that you can turn off, and in some cases, it's actually very useful, since you can limit the number of tabs. It lets me treat recent tabs the same way as I would treat recent applications, which many websites effectively are. But anyways, that choice is made available to you. I don't currently use multiple monitors, but I do use virtual desktops, and...…

The virtual desktop implementation in macOS is called Spaces. The first time it appeared in the OS, it would always span all screens, so when switching they would all switch together.

Presently the default is for each display to have their own collection of spaces. You can have one display with a single space and another one with 10, or 50 on each. They behave independently and are switched independently.

There is a toggle to restore the old behaviour but I find the new one far superior.

I don't understand the question about different resolutions. Why would they be a concern?

I regularly use my MacBook's display in conjunction with a 1600p ultrawide external display. Different resolutions are not a problem, and never have been.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#89

What about that interminable animation every time you fullscreen a window or switch between fullscreen windows? It should be at least twice as fast and there's not even any way to hack it to speed it up. You just have to live with it. ("reduce motion" changes it to a crossfade but doesn't make it faster) While we're at it, the Dock has always been bad. And the top menu bar was good for the original Macintosh with a t…

I like the menu bar, and don't mind the Dock.

Wholly agree about the space switching animation. At the very least, I'd have liked the focus to change when I start switching - not when the animation ends. This way at least I could start typing and pressing shortcuts without having to wait. Not perfect, but better.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?

#90
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if your monitor is too small. Snapping makes no sense on my 5k2k ultrawide, for example.

That’s when you need it the most, so you can tile apps quickly.

I have enough room that I don't need to tile them, that's the point.
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