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AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

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Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#111

Post by darkteflon »

andrewla wrote: post #9
gray_-_wolf wrote: post #6

I will be getting my first mac soon (I am still sad about it), which means I will need to figure out the WM. Currently I am considering yabai and amethyst. I guess now I should add AeroSpace to the list. If you are actually using tiling WM on mac, could you share which one and why?

For what it's worth, I don't think there's a lot of value in these. I hate the MacOS environment as much as anyone, but all the attempts to create tiling managers have resulted in strange unusable quirky behavior. You're better off just sucking it up and using the native UI until you get sufficiently familiar with it that it rarely gets in your way too much. Meanwhile keep lobbying your employer (assuming that you ar…

Generally agree with this - have had lots of buggy experiences with Amethyst, Yabai, Hammerspoon, etc.

That said, Rectangle works - in my experience - flawlessly and is an essential addition to Mac window management. It’s not as ambitious as a full TWM, but what it does provide (snapping, hotkeys, etc) is essential.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#112

Post by yoavmmn »

j45 wrote: post #76
idle_zealot wrote: post #67

I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular, support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard commands to get to the window layout I w…

Thanks, I will try it out to see if it can first solve my main problem - I'm looking for a way on Mac for it to reasonably remember the screen layouts. Every time it wakes from boots, the desktop has complete amnesia with 3 screens. Ideally I'd be able to drive my own workspaces, and it can use the laptop screen only, or 2 or 3 external monitors at different desks (work and home).

Wanted this to exist for so long. I’ve started learning Swift to build an app to solve this. Then I discovered HammerSpoon[1] and since I use a HammerSpoon lua script to adjust the windows layout for my different setups: 1. Laptop only mode 2. At home my MacBook screen is closed and connected to 2 external monitors 3. At work my MacBook screen is open and connected to 1 external monitor

The script detects the connected screen UUID and applies the appropriate layout

[1] http://www.hammerspoon.org/

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#113

Post by j45 »

yoavmmn wrote: post #112
j45 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I will try it out to see if it can first solve my main problem - I'm looking for a way on Mac for it to reasonably remember the screen layouts. Every time it wakes from boots, the desktop has complete amnesia with 3 screens. Ideally I'd be able to drive my own workspaces, and it can use the laptop screen only, or 2 or 3 external monitors at different desks (work and home).

Wanted this to exist for so long. I’ve started learning Swift to build an app to solve this. Then I discovered HammerSpoon[1] and since I use a HammerSpoon lua script to adjust the windows layout for my different setups: 1. Laptop only mode 2. At home my MacBook screen is closed and connected to 2 external monitors 3. At work my MacBook screen is open and connected to 1 external monitor The script detects the connect…

Thanks, I'll check it out. This looks great.

It's a little baffling how MacOS hasn't been able to get this to work. If a Matrox TripleHead2Go could hit a high enough resolution for multiple monitors it might be a possibility.

It did improve with a few tweaks but every so often it forgets.

First I thought it was a Macbook Pro thing. But a Mac Studio, with 3 separate monitors plugged into it, was just as confused.

I'm not sure how Windows and Ubuntu can handle it just fine from my experience.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#115

Post by palata »

idle_zealot wrote: post #67

I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular, support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard commands to get to the window layout I w…

> In sway I'd pop open the new window, then drag it to the top or bottom half of the window I want it to share horizontal space with

I did not even know it was possible to drag windows. I do that by selecting the window I want to split, then setting a "vertical" split with "Command + v", then creating the new window (usually a terminal).

Or I move the window with "Command + Shift + [hjkl]".

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#116

Post by palata »

whartung wrote: post #50

For folks that use the tiling window managers, what applications are you running? And what does a typical desktop look like? In terms of desktop layout, mind I don't use one, the Oberon vision comes to mind. A single, large pane, with all(?) of the others stacked to one side. My friend didn't use a tiling window manager, but had this desktop laid out as such, but all of those windows were terminal windows that he kep…

Tons of terminals for me. Tiling window managers are great for that. The alternative, I guess, would be one big terminal running tmux, but with my tiling window manager it works with GUIs when necessary.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#117

Post by lednax »

idle_zealot wrote: post #67

I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular, support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard commands to get to the window layout I w…

I use spectacle and it’s no longer supported

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#118

Post by wmstack »

I have gotten somewhat used to Raycast's window management tools, and it is not really possible to use them with AeroSpace.

For example, with Raycast I can resize and float a window using "reasonable size" option, which also puts it in the middle. I can use left half and right half to create a split, or I can maximise a window or even use quarters or thirds. With AeroSpace, trrying to move the windows in the tiles using left half, right half, or left two thirds or using reasonable size to float the windows, it doesn't work.

Also, there are bugs associated with moving apps to "next desktop" and "previous desktop". AeroSpace seems to have its own implementation of Mac's multiple desktops called workspaces, so the video guide actually doesn't show transitioning between different desktops, but different workspaces. As a result, using "next desktop" and "previous desktop" completely breaks the tiling. I would've liked Workspaces to just be associated directly with the different Mac desktops so that the movement between workspaces just moves to the different desktops so there is some compatibility with Raycast and native MacOS.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#119

Post by dmix »

wmstack wrote: post #118

I have gotten somewhat used to Raycast's window management tools, and it is not really possible to use them with AeroSpace. For example, with Raycast I can resize and float a window using "reasonable size" option, which also puts it in the middle. I can use left half and right half to create a split, or I can maximise a window or even use quarters or thirds. With AeroSpace, trrying to move the windows in the tiles us…

Raycast is so good

I think it’s going to become a standard app on Macs for powerusers in the future

I really need to deepdive into it because it does so much useful stuff. I use the Linear.app integration the most.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#120

Post by borski »

lednax wrote: post #117
idle_zealot wrote: post #67

I daily drive this and my verdict is: it's the best way to manage windows on a Mac, but falls short of i3/sway. In particular, support for re-arranging windows by dragging them to positions relative to one another is extremely limited in that it's not able to create new vertical or horizontal splits the way you can in sway, which forces me to take awkward detours with keyboard commands to get to the window layout I w…

I use spectacle and it’s no longer supported

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