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Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

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Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#171

Post by bombcar »

drekipus wrote: post #146
Y-bar wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I think it is, In Mac OS it has always been explicit that an application ≠ window (with only a few exceptions such as the calculator app). Closing an app window must not quit the application. This is reinforced by the menu bar which is always at the top of the screen rather than attached to an application window.

Why is that? I'm a gnome/Linux user who had to switch to Mac M3 for work. Macos feels.... Half baked. I don't understand why apps should run after I close the window. I'm also annoyed that I can't type the window I want when viewing all windows. If I open mission control, it takes 3 clicks on the dock to run the app. (Un-do mission control, focus the dock, run the app.) That being said, I do like stage manager, I try…

The macOS ideal (and arguably it’s somewhat correct) is that you shouldn’t have to think about it at all. You should be thinking about the documents/content of what you’re doing, not the internals of the OS.

The closest they’ve gotten is iOS itself where apps sleep forever without your interaction.

In the very early days of macOS before becoming a Unix it was actually noticeable because for ordinary people they apps they would use would always be around, and it was still faster to swap in running apps than load a closed app from disk.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#172

Post by conradfr »

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…

I've had the same problem on two MacBooks (one Intel, one M1), it restored the windows just fine when the (two) monitors were plugged black in until one day ... it stopped.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#173

Post by zeroz »

After some frustration with shifted windows, usually even after a short break and monitor standby, I tried several solutions. Even tools that promised to save the fixed position were not satisfactory. My preferred go-to solution is now to define sets of window positions in a script for different work situations and simply call them up via keyboard shortcut. No third party tools needed, just works with AppleScript. The nice thing is, that it even works with multiple windows of the same app.

Here an example of my "Dev1" setting with three displays (two 27" external 4K displays and one 14" MacBook). Move Firefox to the first display and leave 50 pixel space for the left side dock. Move IntelliJ IDEA to the second and iTerm2 to the MacBook screen. Works reliable.

  use application "System Events"
  
  get (every window of process "firefox" whose value of attribute "AXMinimized" is false)
  repeat with W in the result
   set position of W to {50, 0}
   set size of W to {1870, 1080}
  end repeat

  get (every window of process "idea" whose value of attribute "AXMinimized" is false)
  repeat with W in the result
   set position of W to {1920, 0}
   set size of W to {1920, 1080}
  end repeat
  
  get (every window of process "iTerm2" whose value of attribute "AXMinimized" is false)
  repeat with W in the result
   set position of W to {1125, 1100}
   set size of W to {1510, 940}
  end repeat

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#174

Post by conradfr »

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.

In my case in does that with the (left) external monitor and the (right) MacBook one, while the central one (another external monitor) is fine...

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#175

Post by conradfr »

da768 wrote: post #122
aden1ne wrote: post #112

My main issue with multiple displays on Mac is that the dock sometimes suddenly switches display. Sometimes this doesn't happen for weeks, other times it happens multiple times a day. When this happens, it tends to move the dock from the internal display to the external display, and the existing window on the external display suddenly gets smaller. The only resolution I've found when this occurs is unplugging and re-…

The dock moves whenever your cursor spends too much time hitting the bottom of the screen

I can't emphasis enough how I hate that you can't have one dock per screen, aggravated by the fact that multiple windows of the same app (i.e browser) can't be degrouped.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#176

Post by pohuing »

probabletrain wrote: post #136

The desktop-switching animation is too slow on new Macbook pros with "promotion" (high refresh rate) enabled. The animation speed is tied to the display refresh rate, so disabling promotion (setting refresh rate to 60hz) fixes the issue. It's particular annoying because windows aren't interactable during the animation, so you have to wait for the ease-out to fully complete before you can click on things in the new de…

I've had that complaints for four years when I had to use macos to develop for an iPad. As a Windows(or Plasma) user its window manager is just absurdly behind the times with its exclusive full screen and lack of snapping or having to edit application manifests so you can put the simulator in a tiled setup. It really didn't give me a good impression on why people like macos for development apart from having a shell with outdated utilities. It also doesn't respect the reduced motion accessibility preference to the same degree that windows does, it's how I get around annoyingly long animations on there.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#177

Post by littlestymaar »

zeroz wrote: post #173

After some frustration with shifted windows, usually even after a short break and monitor standby, I tried several solutions. Even tools that promised to save the fixed position were not satisfactory. My preferred go-to solution is now to define sets of window positions in a script for different work situations and simply call them up via keyboard shortcut. No third party tools needed, just works with AppleScript. Th…

MacOS not ready for the desktop: confirmed

(Yes it's just a satire of people who pick random UX failures like that to say Linux is unusable as a daily driver, as if MacOS and Windows were flawless)

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#178

Post by jayde2767 »

To be honest, with respect to just the headline, you could pretty much substitute Windows or Linux in the headline as well.

We can dump tech workers, en masse, to be replaced with futuristic Artificial Intelligence and advanced LLMs, but plug in 2 displays and your computer shits itself.

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#179

Post by DonHopkins »

jayde2767 wrote: post #178

To be honest, with respect to just the headline, you could pretty much substitute Windows or Linux in the headline as well. We can dump tech workers, en masse, to be replaced with futuristic Artificial Intelligence and advanced LLMs, but plug in 2 displays and your computer shits itself.

>but plug in 2 displays and your computer shits itself.

Didn't Kyle Machulis fix that problem?

Re: Multiple Displays on a Mac Sucks

#180

Post by OJFord »

Toutouxc wrote: post #135
OJFord wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the touchpad and mouse 'scroll direction' setting being tied together. It makes sense for Apple mice/external trackpad (which all have a touch surface), so sod the 100% of other far more prevalent mice that use a scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural (but disable it, and lose it on the built-in trackpad too).

> scroll wheel, for which 'natural scroll' is absurdly unnatural IMO there is no objective reason why turning a plastic wheel towards or away from the screen should be the natural choice for scrolling down a webpage. It's just something that some people are used to. My head sees scrolling on a touchpad, the Magic Mouse and a wheeled mouse as the same thing — and I even set my Windows gaming machine so that the mouse…

Fair enough, but it is a different interface to touch, and it even has a separate (duplicated) home in settings. There's no good reason for it to be the same toggle.

(To me, the scroll wheel is reflecting the scroll bar on-screen, so I'm pushing it up or pulling it down. A touch area more naturally resembles the rest of the page/window, so I'm on board with 'natural scroll' - I'm pushing the page up or pulling it down.)

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