The author makes a big deal of lack of snapping. Frankly I've never seen the utility of it on OSs that do have it, infact I've always felt it more of a hinderance than a help (gets in the way, tries to snap when you don't want it to).
The author makes a big deal that you have to do Command+Tab to switch applications, and then Command+` to cycle between windows in that application. Well, frankly I think thats the better way, I'll give you an example:
Let's say (as you do) you have a dozen browser windows open (maybe in more than one browser) ... do you REALLY want to sit there hitting Command+Tab dozens of times ? No. Its quicker to switch to the desired app and then cycle within the app. That way you don't cycle through the browser when you don't need to.
Finally there are some, frankly bizarre, comments in the blog post, such as:
> However, that keyboard doesn’t have the Option (⌥) or Command (⌘) keys like on my Macbook.
Well, yeah, its not Apple's problem if you choose to use a PC keyboard with your Mac. Most people would either use the built-in Mac keyboard or buy an external one (third-party Mac keyboards are available from the usual suspects if you don't fancy an Apple one).
I gave up reading the blog post around that point ("The Undecided" header to be precise).
> Let's say (as you do) you have a dozen browser windows open (maybe in more than one browser) ... do you REALLY want to sit there hitting Command+Tab dozens of times ? No. Its quicker to switch to the desired app and then cycle within the app. That way you don't cycle through the browser when you don't need to.
I'll see your use case and raise you a:
Let's say you now have two dozens of browser windows open on two desktops. And you also have a dozen terminal windows open also across two desktops. You've just googled something on desktop 1, and trying it out in terminal 1, now you get a beep from Slack on desktop 2, which is not maximized because you were communicating something from your workspace there so it was needed on the right half of the screen. You read the message, you alt-Tab back to the terminal... and end up in a different terminal on the current workspace.
It feels like this was done to work around the fact that windows are grouped by application in MacOS, so that Alt-Tab between a browser and terminal always stayed on the same workspace.
Yeah this annoys me too. I just had get used to the fact that if I context switch away to a different desktop, I should switch back with ctrl-left, not with cmd-tab.
Sorry for the snark in advance: Are you for real? I do want IDE and documentation in browser next to each other on my 31.5" 1440 screen, thank you very much.
I get where the author is coming from, but I too prefer the cmd-tab to switch between applications, and cmd-backtick to cycle through windows in the application. I do more of the latter than the former.
Neither do I care that much for snapping. What I really prefer is for my windows to be where I left them, and MacOS is pretty good about keeping them that way.
> What I really prefer is for my windows to be where I left them, and MacOS is pretty good about keeping them that way.
Well, it is once you go into Preferences > Mission Control and turn off "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use"
I can't imagine why that's enabled by default, and I always forget to turn it off when setting up a new machine and don't realize it until I get confused for the 50th time, thinking I'm losing my mind cause my desktops are in a different order from what I thought
> The author makes a big deal of lack of snapping. Frankly I've never seen the utility of it on OS's that do have it, infact I've always felt it more of a hinderance than a help (gets in the way, tries to snap when you don't want it to).
It may be useful for users of large external monitors, allowing to make better use of the screen real estate. Then again, Macos lacks per-application menu bars, which means you cannot do a lot of tasks without focusing the app first, so IMHO lack of snapping/advanced windows management is not as big as a deal as it would be under Windows.
There are Mac applications you can download to get this behaviour. Magnet does it and is cheap, and Raycast (spotlight alternative) does it and is free.
> this is a work machine and I need to get everything I install blessed by IT security. Easy for large applications like Slack or Chrome, but harder for the small tools that only fix my niche issues (I’ve already found Rectangle, BetterSnapTool, and Magnet).
I've never used snapping on any OS, but on MacOS I feel the need even less, because the programs seem really really good about remembering my window positions once I have things setup the way I want.
Nobody seems to know about App Exposé, which you can trigger with ctrl+down. I also have it set for three finger swipe down. You can then use the arrow keys to move between windows if you don't want to use the mouse, and it includes minimized windows as well, which cmd+` does not.
When you go into the trackpad settings there are little videos showing what each gesture does. App Exposé is right there. I don’t know how more discoverable it can be.
Since it seems like it’s Windows converts that can’t find it, maybe Apple could buy some of those Windows File Explorer ads Microsoft is experimenting with and explain the functionality.
TBH I think this is a more universal problem. I work in a University and students with either Macs or Windows laptops all seem to lack the basic ability to get around their OS. They'll entirely mouse orientated ignorant of many time saving affordances.
On the other hand you have people who read HN who know their system intimately and don't like when another system is different. I could rant all day about Windows too!
The author makes a big deal that you have to do Command+Tab to switch applications, and then Command+` to cycle between windows in that application. Well, frankly I think thats the better way, I'll give you an example:
Let's say (as you do) you have a dozen browser windows open (maybe in more than one browser) ... do you REALLY want to sit there hitting Command+Tab dozens of times ? No. Its quicker to switch to the desired app and then cycle within the app. That way you don't cycle through the browser when you don't need to.
Finally there are some, frankly bizarre, comments in the blog post, such as:
> However, that keyboard doesn’t have the Option (⌥) or Command (⌘) keys like on my Macbook.
Well, yeah, its not Apple's problem if you choose to use a PC keyboard with your Mac. Most people would either use the built-in Mac keyboard or buy an external one (third-party Mac keyboards are available from the usual suspects if you don't fancy an Apple one).
I gave up reading the blog post around that point ("The Undecided" header to be precise).