I wonder, has anyone moved away from using i3 (for a few years) to dwm or another dynamic wm? If so please share your experiences.
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Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
31–40 of 58 posts
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#32I think this is a really nice idea. I suspect I will continue using mod + {num} but I love the implementation. I've always liked OS X's distinction between Alt + Tab which switches between App, and then Alt + ~ to switch between the windows of the apps. While using Windows the number of open windows quickly becomes too large for Alt + Tab to be useful for anything more than switching between a handful of recent windo…
> But the problem with the OS X implementation is that after you switch to an app switching between windows is like throwing darts in teh dark. There is no overall context available at all. There's also the fact that, IIRC, it brings all the non-minimized windows of the app to the front.
Good point. That really destroys the stability of the spatial layout.
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#33I've bound alt+tab to `workspace back_and_forth`, so I can toggle between the last two used workspaces. I mostly have only 1 window per workspace, so it works fine for me.
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#34I have always found that workspaces were a way to "save a game" and I don't have to switch a lot so I never bothered using anything else than my desktop's native shortcuts.
On the other hand, window switching happens often and needs to be fast and as a vimmer I always found that mod + j/k was a natural candidate.
Anyone else using anything out of the ordinary that they think is clever ?
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#35`$mod+{1..0}` seems to be more ergnomic as someone who switched from macOS to Linux with i3, but that's just me.
I miss Mod + {1..n} when using macOS!! I know they do allow workspace switching via keyboard shortcuts. But the minute you full screen an app, that breaks. Full screened apps are taken out of the desktop workflow. So even though a three-finger swipe can move between a full-screen app and a desktop, keyboard shortcuts cannot.
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#36One big reason I use i3 is because I find the Windows and macOS style alt/cmd tab incredibly unintuitive. It is not easy to consistently predict how many times to press it to get the desired result. With i3 I bind keys to specific things (including workspaces) so I can switch instantly.
The Windows alt+tab behaviour up to Windows 7 was reliable/predictable with two caveats, 1. Things that minimised to the notification area would not go to the back of the stack when you minimised them. 2. Microsoft Excel misbehaved - something to do with each workbook having its own window entry in the group, but also the application having this entry. At some point since Windows 7 I played with it and found it to be…
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Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#37Here's mine:
bindsym $mod+Shift+P exec /home/calvin/bin/rename_workspace
bindsym $mod+Shift+F exec /home/calvin/bin/throw_window
alt-F -> "throw_window" launches dmenu with a list of all my windows so i can then select it and it will automatically switch me to the workspace that window is on and focus it
alt-P -> rename my workspace on the fly
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#38`$mod+{1..0}` seems to be more ergnomic as someone who switched from macOS to Linux with i3, but that's just me.
I miss Mod + {1..n} when using macOS!! I know they do allow workspace switching via keyboard shortcuts. But the minute you full screen an app, that breaks. Full screened apps are taken out of the desktop workflow. So even though a three-finger swipe can move between a full-screen app and a desktop, keyboard shortcuts cannot.
Coming from i3 this was one of my biggest pain on osx, running skhd + yabai to solve that. Still not i3's perfect experience: I did not manage to have only one action key, but starting to get closer. And you can have that full screen without the osx full screen!
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#39You can switch workspaces by scrolling on the i3 bar. That's probably the easiest way.
Re: Show HN: I3wm Alt+Tab Workspace Switcher
#40Isn't it much more efficient to simply use $mod+num_of_workspace like Alt+1, Alt+2?
You still have that available. This is for when you might not remember which workspace the stuff you're looking for or are just more visual in recognizing the workspace you need.
Alt-W does that too though