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Show HN: Universal Pause Button

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Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#161

Post by geon »

yoz-y wrote: post #149
geon wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dragging overlapping windows is a stupid idea to begin with. I use a keyboard based window manager as much as possible (Spectacle), and with splitscreen I can hopefully almost completely stop using windows.

Overlapping windows is what makes mouse based interaction fast. Not everybody wants to use keyboard all the time. Also, often times it is useful to have more than two windows on screen at a time.

> Overlapping windows is what makes mouse based interaction fast.

How does the overlappingness make anything faster? If anything it becomes slower, because you need to move windows out of the way, or select them before you can get to the covered part.

> Not everybody wants to use keyboard all the time

In no way necessary. I don't think the WWDC splitscreen demo used keyboard shortcuts at all?

> it is useful to have more than two windows on screen at a time.

Having more than one window on the screen is also not helped by the windows overlapping. I regularly have 2-4 windows side-by-side on the same screen at once without overlapping, and multiple such screens and fullscreen windows on virtual desktops.

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#162

Post by globuous »

dripton wrote: post #124
vonklaus wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who just switched to Linux from OS X, it is really hard to migrate. I miss the subtleties of the apple ecosystem. Sure Linux is awesome, but I have been battling trackpad support issues, keymapping the super_key to CMD, and just general battling the UX. tl;dr a more powerful operating system with worse UI, which is the obvious trade. A less powerful system with a fantastic UI.

UI is subjective. I get mildly annoyed whenever I use a Mac. Little things like having to click on a window to give it focus, or having to use command instead of control in many programs, break my flow. I'd probably get used to those if I only used a Mac, but since I use Linux 95% of the time and Mac 5%, I never do.

Honestly, i don't mind the window focusing on mac. What I absolutely fucking hate though, is working on Windows and not being able to scroll on a window that's not active. By default on Mac, if a window's focused, you can scroll another (unfocused) window by scrolling when you mouse is over it. Without having to refocus windows, which is really nice when you're typing something on the focused window.

As for the cmd button replacing the ctrl button. Never going back to ctrl+ for shortcuts. The command button is so much nicer to use, it's your thumb vs you pinky. You don't need to stretch you pinky/move you hand slightly to have access to shortcuts and that's so nice. VERY desturbing at first (I hated it), but never going back. Or maybe I've just gotten used to using my thumb. Ultimately, I think it makes a lot more sense though. No more alt-F4 to close windows, its cmd+Q, no more ctrl+B to bold a text, it's cmd+b, cmd+h minimizes/hides your window etc etc.

Also, what i found infinitely annoying at first and that I really like now on Mac, is the window switching with the keyboard. On Windows, alt+tab switches between all windows (including different instances of same program). on Mac, alt+tab switches between applications and alt+` switches between different instances of a said program. I find that more elegant when you have a lot of windows opened, which i always have.

But all these are tiny little things that add up to something really nice to use, but each individually don't and will never justify OS X being the best OS in the world blah blah. You can probably achieve a similar behavior on windows/Linux/whatever. What's nice about it though is that it's the default setup, no third party app needed/config files. You install it and it makes sense. That's why I'm not switching from OS X anytime soon, it's ergonomic, the UI is sick, power user features everywhere, and a real unix. I see it as a linux that works perfectly out of the box. I remember the first month I spent on OS X (coming from 4 years of linux, 2 yr Ubuntu and 2 yr Arch, using both full desktop env (KDE mostly) and lightweigth window managers), everything works and works well and everything is ergonomic and makes sense. Put simply, a Mac never (or very rarely) gets in the way of your work. And that makes a big difference.

But then, I just like Macs because of how I use my computer. I get it that some might prefer a Linux or Windows, and I respect that. I'm just extremely thankful OS X answers exactly what I expect from a computer.

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#163

Post by wjoe »

xur17 wrote: post #119
aerique wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a phase. I run into similar issues when using OSX while being used to Linux.

I went through a similar struggle when switching to a Mac about a year ago for work. I still miss the ability to drag windows around from anywhere by holding the alt key, and dragging any part of the window. Never found a good replacement in OSX.

I use HyperDock for this: http://hyperdock.bahoom.com/

It's mainly focused on modifications for the OS X dock which I don't use, but it also does alt drag window movement, and alt + num pad for tiling windows. It costs a a bit of money after a trial period, but it's the most reliable replacement for alt drag I've found so far.

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#164

Post by wjoe »

vonklaus wrote: post #112
bbcbasic wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry. Linux is slicker.

As someone who just switched to Linux from OS X, it is really hard to migrate. I miss the subtleties of the apple ecosystem. Sure Linux is awesome, but I have been battling trackpad support issues, keymapping the super_key to CMD, and just general battling the UX. tl;dr a more powerful operating system with worse UI, which is the obvious trade. A less powerful system with a fantastic UI.

As someone who uses Linux for everything but just had to start using OS X for work, it's really hard to migrate. Remapping ctrl to cmd and various other keyboard oddities, unfamiliar mouse acceleration, and missing features like middle click to paste and holding alt to drag windows. Various other things that I'm able to customise to my liking in Linux, but are much harder to modify in OS X.

Chances are you're going to think that the thing you've been using for years is "good UI", and anything different is "bad UI". I don't doubt that Apple have spent a lot of time designing their UI/UX to work well for most people, but it feels bad to me because it's not what I'm used to.

Either way, you get used to it. I've found programs that make OS X work in a way that's more familar to me, and learned to work with the things I can't change.

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#165

Post by aerique »

vonklaus wrote: post #123
xur17 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through a similar struggle when switching to a Mac about a year ago for work. I still miss the ability to drag windows around from anywhere by holding the alt key, and dragging any part of the window. Never found a good replacement in OSX.

haha. You guys must be right. That is the exact functionality that is the most annoying for me right now! I need to get used to this new OS. I miss 3 finger swipe right. ctrl+alt+shift+ [direction] is quite a macro just to move a screen.

Realize that what you mean with "to get used to this new OS" is possibly "I need to get used to this desktop environment / window manager". I don't know what desktop environment you use but it is possibly Ubuntu's Unity, Gnome or KDE.

On Unix you have a lot of choice on the (graphical) interface you chose to interact with. So while to one you're currently using might be OK, there's bound to be one that's even better suited to your needs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_manager

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

(Also, it's usually trivial to change your keybindings.)

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#166

Post by coldpie »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #85
baby wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still having nightmares of someone interrupting me during those long and unpausable metal gear solid cutscenes

MGS 4 is like 50% cutscenes. You can pause them though - thank fuck, the ending cutscenes are over an hour in length or however long it was.

Yes, the ending cutscene after you beat the game is one hour and eight minutes long. Source (sorry it's an infographic): http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/17/infographic-metal-gear-sol...

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#167

Post by e_proxus »

globuous wrote: post #162
dripton wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UI is subjective. I get mildly annoyed whenever I use a Mac. Little things like having to click on a window to give it focus, or having to use command instead of control in many programs, break my flow. I'd probably get used to those if I only used a Mac, but since I use Linux 95% of the time and Mac 5%, I never do.

Honestly, i don't mind the window focusing on mac. What I absolutely fucking hate though, is working on Windows and not being able to scroll on a window that's not active. By default on Mac, if a window's focused, you can scroll another (unfocused) window by scrolling when you mouse is over it. Without having to refocus windows, which is really nice when you're typing something on the focused window. As for the cmd b…

For Windows, Katmouse alleviates some of the pain of scroll focus: http://ehiti.de/katmouse/

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#168

Post by vonklaus »

aerique wrote: post #165
vonklaus wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha. You guys must be right. That is the exact functionality that is the most annoying for me right now! I need to get used to this new OS. I miss 3 finger swipe right. ctrl+alt+shift+ [direction] is quite a macro just to move a screen.

Realize that what you mean with "to get used to this new OS" is possibly "I need to get used to this desktop environment / window manager". I don't know what desktop environment you use but it is possibly Ubuntu's Unity, Gnome or KDE. On Unix you have a lot of choice on the (graphical) interface you chose to interact with. So while to one you're currently using might be OK, there's bound to be one that's even better…

yep thanks. I run ParrotOS which is basically debian with some slick UI and pentesting toolsets. It is a gnome desktop enviro. I will check those links out. The keybindings did not hold on the tut I followed, no biggie. My major point is that I am a mac superuser, but when I switch windows I have to manually deselect a window (because it follows me). It is just absorbing the nuances of linux and inculcating the macros into my head.

It is like switching from JS to Ruby for me.

Re: Show HN: Universal Pause Button

#170

Post by RyanRies »

irq-1 wrote: post #169
RyanRies wrote: post #2

You can also download the executable (if you don't want to compile it) from https://www.myotherpcisacloud.com/post/universal-pause-butto...

You should not pause explorer.exe

Agreed. Learned that the hard way. I have since updated the app with an exclusion specifically for explorer.exe. Later I'll scan the registry and find what the user's shell is, just to cover the rare case that the user has a custom shell.
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