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

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201–210 of 573 posts

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

#201
post #151
post #141

Well, because it has? Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options. Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom. These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap. And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+. So it is not "…

The only Apple device I use is the laptop I was given for work, and I've always disliked that the button that would "maximize" the window on other OS instead makes the window "fullscreen" (getting rid of the menu and everything else that entails). I recently discovered that I am actually able to "maximize" by double-clicking the top bar of the window, but I have no idea if this is something that works by default or i…

The setting for that is in Desktop & Dock. It used to default to Minimize.

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

#202
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only Apple device I use is the laptop I was given for work, and I've always disliked that the button that would "maximize" the window on other OS instead makes the window "fullscreen" (getting rid of the menu and everything else that entails). I recently discovered that I am actually able to "maximize" by double-clicking the top bar of the window, but I have no idea if this is something that works by default or i…

If you move the mouse up to the top of the screen in fullscreen mode the menu bar will reappear, so things work about like normal (although that certainly wasn't obvious the first time I pressed the green button). The double-click on the title bar is "Zoom" mode, which you can activate with Window >> Zoom. But I agree, it's not obvious, nor is it obvious what "Zoom" means.

> what "Zoom" means

This:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36373756

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

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS is designed for mainstream users, not power users who want an efficient workflow with minimum distractions. This is why I stopped complaining about macOS and just use Linux.

Only if you're very lucky with Linux, or your definition of distraction does not include hours spent on fixing sleep and hibernation, finding the right input method among several that keep getting deprecated, fixing pixel scaling with multiple monitors, and other fun stuff. I still have a Linux Desktop that I boot up from time to time, but I've pretty much given up at this point. My time is more valuable than that.

[flagged]

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

#204
post #141

Well, because it has? Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options. Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom. These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap. And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+. So it is not "…

Apple loves to hide functionality to the point where it essentially doesn't exist. When I started at Apple as an engineer, the first bug I filed was "Can't resize windows from their edges" (or any corner except one). Just mind-bogglingly stupid. And when Apple finally does capitulate and admit that others have done it better, they petulantly try to hide the functionality anyway. In the case of the windows, there's no…

My favorite is how, if you have multiple windows of the same app visible, when you cmd-tab to that app, it moves all of the windows to the top of the stack. So if you want to switch between windows of two different apps, you better hide the ones you don't use.

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

#205
post #118

Seems like you assume everyone likes window snapping because you do. It’s one of the most annoying aspects of using Windows for me.

Huh? What's annoying about something completely optional? If you don't like window snapping, just.... don't?

Apple people are always like this. They always find justifications for their company. If you ask an Apple guy why does the mouse have the charge port on the bottom, making it unusable when charging, he'll say Tim Apple has perfectly engineered the mouse to optimize for the right amount of time it takes to drink a cup of coffee.

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

#206
post #151
post #141

Well, because it has? Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options. Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom. These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap. And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+. So it is not "…

The only Apple device I use is the laptop I was given for work, and I've always disliked that the button that would "maximize" the window on other OS instead makes the window "fullscreen" (getting rid of the menu and everything else that entails). I recently discovered that I am actually able to "maximize" by double-clicking the top bar of the window, but I have no idea if this is something that works by default or i…

Wasn't (isn't) double clicking the title bar the maximize behavior for Windows and Gnome too?

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

#207
post #141

Well, because it has? Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options. Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom. These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap. And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+. So it is not "…

Apple loves to hide functionality to the point where it essentially doesn't exist. When I started at Apple as an engineer, the first bug I filed was "Can't resize windows from their edges" (or any corner except one). Just mind-bogglingly stupid. And when Apple finally does capitulate and admit that others have done it better, they petulantly try to hide the functionality anyway. In the case of the windows, there's no…

I only have an iPad these days, I now use Windows; but when I did use MacOS, has Apple fixed your first bug? Can you resize windows from any edge or corner now, or must one always uses the lower right corner only to resize the window?

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

#208
UX when snapping to the right of the screen will suffer because the toolbar will forever be stuck to the top left of the screen. As such, I don’t believe this is a well optimised use case and might be why Apple doesn’t want to “emphasise” this particular use case.

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

#209
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only Apple device I use is the laptop I was given for work, and I've always disliked that the button that would "maximize" the window on other OS instead makes the window "fullscreen" (getting rid of the menu and everything else that entails). I recently discovered that I am actually able to "maximize" by double-clicking the top bar of the window, but I have no idea if this is something that works by default or i…

Default behavior of the green button click is full-screen, but option-click maximizes. The behavior of double-clicking the title bar is controlled by the "Dock & Menu Bar" settings pane. It can be configured to minimize the window instead. You can also double-click any edge or corner to maximize from that side alone. Option-double-clicking will grow both sides. I like to option-double-click my Terminal windows to max…

You can discover so many things on Mac by Option-clicking! It’s used in many places to give an ‘alternate’ function to buttons and the like.

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

#210

Why window buttons are on the top -left, that is the question?

Where should they be, and why?

On the right, because that's where most people are accustomed to find them.

But they weirdest thing is that the buttons are colored instead of having meaningful icons.

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