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Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

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Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#81

Post by emrox »

cjk2 wrote: post #77
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #29

> The Mac operating system still Just. Fucking. Sucks. at remembering where windows were, when relaunching apps. I agree and it's confounding. For me it's even worse: when plugging back into my home office after some work on the road, it doesn't remember the window positions associated with that setup, and I have to reorganize my dozens of windows away from the laptop screen again. I've solved this through a 3rd-part…

Works fine for me. I sit down, plug my MBP 14" into the studio display, close the lid and carry on where I was. It does a reasonable job of window placement.

probably works when using a single screen. But on a multi screen setup, so having the macbook as 2nd screen, it's not working

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#82

Post by alkonaut »

I work with desktop software and have to work with multiple display scenarios. It's on Windows, but I guess the problems are similar. Fundamentally, one issue is that the concepts of multiple screens, multiple desktops, multiple DPI's are usually quite young.

Also, there is (at least in Windows) no well defined concept of "desktop configurations". There is no built in support for remembering which screen a particular window was last started on, or last shut down on etc. You have to write all this from scratch. Log a screen index/name/size/whatever, per window, on shutdown. If your app is one that typically spreads out over multiple screens, it's even worse.

For a user that some times works on a laptop, and some times plugs in a second display as their primary screen, then the odds of that being recognized as "Oh now they're using that config where they are more likely to want to use the large screen for our program rather than launching on the screen the last ran on" is basically nil. Does that happen in any software? Is it even a remote expectation of any user? It would be a pleasant surprise for sure, but I'm also sure half the time the guess would be wrong, leading to even more frustration than a simpler system with fewer guesses like "launch on the screen last used regardless of the current configuration".

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#83

Post by giankam »

otikik wrote: post #47

This person needs rectangle at least. https://rectangleapp.com/ It will not solve all the problems, but at least it will allow for fast key-based window movement instead of slow drag-and dropping with the mouse.

Agreed, I use bettertouchtools for the same purpose

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#85

Post by lordnacho »

jstsch wrote: post #70
geon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an article here on hn like a week ago. Apparently a lot of manufacturers ship monitors with identical serial numbers, so the os can’t identify them.

This is indeed the main problem. If you have two screens of the same model, the OS is unable to see which is which. This also goes for many USB devices (such as webcams that randomly swap).

Ok but then it could at least say "there is a screen plugged into port 1, and the same serial in port 2, so I'll draw the things that were on port 1 there again"?

That way it would be up to the user to plug the same screen into the same port, which I think I could handle.

Plus I can see the serials are actually different, so just going by serials should work.

Or it should just tell you "hey buddy, you've got two screens with the same serial and that's why I don't know what to do"

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#86

Post by joshstrange »

Interesting, I don’t have any of these issue due to 2 pieces of software: displayplacer [0] and Phoenix [1]. Both free and open source.

displayplacer is a CLI tool that once you have your monitors configured how you want them, it can give you a command you can run in the future to reconfigure your monitors the same way again. I have 2 commands stored (that I activate via Alfred but I could have also set up aliases in zsh) for the 2 locations I work at. When I sit down I run the command and everything snaps into place. I could automate this to run automatically but I haven’t felt the need.

Phoenix is a tool that lets me write my own keyboard shortcuts for window management. I have 1 key combo that detects which location I’m at (by looking at monitor UUIDs) then positions all my windows how I like them. I also have shortcuts for resizing windows on a monitor or moving windows between monitors. You can accomplish something similar with Moom [2] (paid) and Rectangle [3] (free) or Magnet [4] (paid).

As for the dock issue, I use right-side dock with auto-hide and I don't find this bothersome at all. I use it plenty in addition to Alfred to launch apps. I have 3 monitors, 1 horizontal in the middle and 2 vertical on each side.

Lastly the Menu Bar, I have it only on my center display, always visible. Never felt like that was a problem or limiting to me.

[0] https://github.com/jakehilborn/displayplacer

[1] https://github.com/kasper/phoenix

[2] https://manytricks.com/moom/

[3] https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle

[4] https://magnet.crowdcafe.com

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#87

Post by jemmyw »

phito wrote: post #73
JR1427 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company has enforced frequent updates of browsers and other software set up, so we are relaunching apps very often, and this drives me crazy. It feels like someone is walking over to your desk and moving everything around, just to annoy you.

Is it a Mac thing to keep applications open? I usually close mine as soon as I'm not actively using them

Not really, I would guess more of a personal workflow. I just have the same set of apps open the whole time, regardless of OS. Browser, test browser, code editor, terminal, chat, music player. That's enough windows to cause placement issues.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#88

Post by joshstrange »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #29

> The Mac operating system still Just. Fucking. Sucks. at remembering where windows were, when relaunching apps. I agree and it's confounding. For me it's even worse: when plugging back into my home office after some work on the road, it doesn't remember the window positions associated with that setup, and I have to reorganize my dozens of windows away from the laptop screen again. I've solved this through a 3rd-part…

> It's particularly frustrating since Apple's most popular Mac product is their Macbooks, which have a rich docking and display ecosystem, so you'd think dynamically changing the desktop configuration would be solidly handled! But no.

I hear what you’re saying, but the vast majority of MacBook pros are probably never plugged into an external display. I know on Hacker News it’s a very different story, but for the general population, they don’t use external displays.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#89

Post by jemmyw »

brtkdotse wrote: post #41
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #29

> The Mac operating system still Just. Fucking. Sucks. at remembering where windows were, when relaunching apps. I agree and it's confounding. For me it's even worse: when plugging back into my home office after some work on the road, it doesn't remember the window positions associated with that setup, and I have to reorganize my dozens of windows away from the laptop screen again. I've solved this through a 3rd-part…

Three times I tried switching from Windows to Mac and each time I bounced because of how janky basic window ergonomics were. I shouldn't have to buy single-dollar-programs to fix core OS functionality.

I wrote a hammerspoon script that moves my windows and the dock when I plug in to monitors. That's free, I agree we shouldn't have to have such a complex solution though. But I would bet that if Apple did provide a built in solution it would break the more complex solutions.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#90

Post by noname120 »

geon wrote: post #20
lordnacho wrote: post #15

I don't get why the screens sometimes swap around. It makes no sense to me that sometimes when I log in, my extra screens are switched and I have to move all the contents. The machine has the serial numbers of the screens, and it knows what ports they are connected to. Why can they not just use that information to remember where stuff is supposed to be? The other thing that annoys me is that it changes the background…

There was an article here on hn like a week ago. Apparently a lot of manufacturers ship monitors with identical serial numbers, so the os can’t identify them.

Well, BetterDisplay manages that just fine: https://cloud.paul.garden/s/eipiTJpKESPHZ6Q
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