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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

#81

Post by nbobko »

mrgaro wrote: post #66
nbobko wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, AeroSpace author speaking :) > Windows get repositioned by normal interactions and the window manager is not able to wrangle them I'm certainly biased, but no, I don't face issues like that > and connecting external monitors is a disaster Connecting and disconnecting external monitors is an important use case for me as well. I dedicated my time to support specifically this case, so hopefully it works correctly fo…

I'm a long time Amethyst user, but going to try AeroSpace out! Based on the documentation the toml syntax is stretched quite a bit to implement some logic and callbacks. Have you considered some scripting language to make it easier to do, or is the need for this kind of advanced use so little that it's not really a problem?

When I started the project, I kept it simple, so I started with the static config

The complexity of the config has grown since then, with the bigest (and, actually, the only) problem being on-window-detected callback as you mentioned.

I've been thinking about using a scripting language like Lua, but I haven't made my mind yet whether it's worth it

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

#82

Post by cweagans »

better_sh wrote: post #33

This is great! I find the one thing I miss the most from i3 that none of the macOS tiling managers seem to have is i3bar, or a minimal bar that displays what space I'm on, how many spaces I have, cpu/ram usage, etc. I've tried to find configs that emulate this with Spacebar [0], but haven't been able to find anything [0] https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar

You can likely do this with Hammerspoon. It should be pretty straightforward as long as you have somewhere you can get the name/id of the space that you're on.

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

#83

Post by bashinator »

lelandfe wrote: post #54
bashinator wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been searching for a sloppy-mouse-focus implementation for OSX for _years_. Pretty sure there's something fundamentally incompatible in how app windows are managed.

It's also a bummer because Terminal.app has the functionality out of the box: https://macos-defaults.com/mouse/focusfollowsmouse.html

It can be implemented within apps, but not across apps afaict.

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

#84

Post by nbobko »

avidphantasm wrote: post #8

Can we stop pissing and moaning about notarization? macOS isn’t Linux and this isn’t 1994. Given the cybersecurity threats of the world today, signing by a central authority makes some amount of sense for apps on consumer OSes.

I agree that signing by a central authority makes sense. As the readme mentions, I don't have anything against notarization as a concept.

I specifically don't like how painfull Apple does it. (Google for "notarization hell macos")

This is my pet project that I do for fun and for free. Bowing my head to Apple every time I want to release a new version is not fun. Waking up in the middle of the night, because Apple revoked the app (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/167) is not fun.

AeroSpace is a tool for developers by developers. Developers can audit the code and install the app from sources

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

#85

Post by tln »

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).

I've resorted to running a shell script every time I plug in.

displayplacer "id:... res:2048x1330 hz:120 color_depth:8 enabled:true scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0" "id:... res:3840x2160 hz:30 color_depth:8 enabled:true scaling:off origin:(-918,-2160) degree:0"

displayplacer is very easy to set up and also gives you access to modes that you can't access with System Preferences.

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

#86

Post by jamil7 »

TachyonicBytes wrote: post #35
iyn wrote: post #4

> Doesn't require disabling SIP That's very interesting! I've been hesitant to use similar WMs as basically all required disabling SIP. Anyone knows what AeroSpace is doing differently that it can work alongside SIP? Edit: found this in the README: > AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). For example, yabai requires you to disable SIP to use some of its features. AeroSpace will…

I wonder if following the mouse for focus would be doable without disabling SIP. It's one of the features I didn't even see in other macOS WM.

Should be possible using AX APIs on mac, might not be all that performant, however.

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

#87

Post by vmladenov »

igorguerrero wrote: post #79

This looks so awesome I gonna dust off my mac mini. As a tiling wm user (Hyprland now) I always wonder how OSX users claim they're that productive with all those alt+tabbin' I meant cmd+tabbin'. Welcome to the 2010s guys!

Can you share any resources on learning to be productive with tiling WMs? I have tried a few times and always bounce off of them. I also find window overlapping to often be more intuitive than forcing them to squeeze into a tile.

I internalized the swipe gestures (3 fingers left/right) early on with OS X 10.6 snow leopard and then with the Mission Control update (3 fingers up) I am basically always faster with a trackpad than any keyboard “workspace” navigation.

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

#88

Post by skydhash »

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…

I'm a developer so not as much an outlier. My usual workspace is usually laid like this:

1. Emacs. Coding and other stuff

2. Browser. Either the web application I'm working on and other searches

3. Terminal. For long standing actions and other system stuff.

4 . Documentation. Mostly another browser windows.

5. Utilities. Mostly GUI related to the current project I'm working on (Database, API Tests,...

I'm working inside a VM (macOS hosts) so I use the host software for other things. But if it bare-metal, I'd add a workspace for media, and another for communication.

As you may guess, it's almost one maximized application for each workspace. This way I can quickly switch to it with the keybindings. The only time I have a proper tiling structure is when I need the information from both windows at once (Taking notes and reading a document,...). Tiling is mostly about not thinking about where the windows will be, not to have everything there at once.

macOS has Spaces, but the ergonomics are bad. Especially the animations if you use them a lot.

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

#89

Post by msravi »

iyn wrote: post #4

> Doesn't require disabling SIP That's very interesting! I've been hesitant to use similar WMs as basically all required disabling SIP. Anyone knows what AeroSpace is doing differently that it can work alongside SIP? Edit: found this in the README: > AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). For example, yabai requires you to disable SIP to use some of its features. AeroSpace will…

I tried yabai but found switching between macos spaces too slow. I moved to aerospace and I absolutely love the workspace implementation. But I really love yabai's focus-follows-mouse feature - so is it possible to use yabai just for that while using aerosoace for everything else i3-like?
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