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Show HN: Keypad Layout Window Manager for Mac

109 points by janten 9y ago

raghavkhanna 9y ago
There's also spectacle (https://www.spectacleapp.com/ https://www.spectacleapp.com/), however this seems worth trying out, especially due to the ease of remembering the layout config shortcuts
- matt2000 9y ago
  Came here to recommend spectacle too. I basically only use the keyboard shortcuts to send windows to the left half, or right half of the screen. If you hit them again it does 2/3rds or 1/3rds of that side of the screen which is helpful on lower resolutions. That pretty much covers me for window management.
  - TomAnthony 9y ago
    Yeah - the simplicity of it, over something like this one posted, makes it much nicer. I also use for move windows to the other display.
- Brajeshwar 9y ago
  My default utility too; for quite a while.
- hexagonsun 9y ago
  I love Spectacle, highly recommended!
- behnamoh 9y ago
  Spectacle is one of those apps that has persuaded me to stay on mac and not switch back to Windows. But really, what mac needs now is larger quit/minimize/maximize buttons on each window. Most of the times on Windows, I would just click on the corner of the screen, knowing that I'm clicking on the exit button automatically. Closing windows on Windows became much of a gesture. But as for the mac, I have to precisely click on the red button to close that window, or otherwise use CMD+W shortcut.
hayden592 9y ago
Looks neat and I'll have to try it out. Just curious what makes this different from Spectacle or Shiftit?
sambe 9y ago
I always used Divvy for this, but IIRC it's paid only. Looks like a nice start.
- janten 9y ago
  Author here. I actually started this project after buying Divvy. Divvy has many more features but I could never set it up just right. In particular I found no way to use the grid feature without the mouse (other than assigning shortcuts to pre-defined layouts). So I scratched my own itch and created Keypad Layout as a simple no-frills replacement that works exactly the way I want it to.
  - sambe 9y ago
    Yes, I ended up using pre-defined shortcuts for common areas. It seemed like a massive downer after paying money for it, but in the end covered 95% of my use-cases acceptably.
  - rmateu 9y ago
    I'm loving this model. Thanks for sharing. I own Magnet, Moom, Cinch and a few others. I always end up abandoning because the powerful keyboard features get in the way when you're in an actual workflow, and the basic ones make me reach for the mouse.
- tyingq 9y ago
  I'm wondering if Divvy is going to be hit by this patent holder: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14333957 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14333957 This project seems safe, as the UI doesn't show a preview grid you can drag over.
  - tonyhb 9y ago
    According to that thread's comments the patent was granted in 2011 whilst Divvy was around in 2010, so hopefully it's safe.
    - 9y ago
AndrewHampton 9y ago
I'll drop in the customary link to hammerspoon: http://www.hammerspoon.org http://www.hammerspoon.org It has a couple libraries for window management. One is plug and play, the other is lower level. Here is my config for setting up a 2x2 grid: https://github.com/andrewhampton/dotfiles/blob/master/hammerspoon/.hammerspoon/grid.lua https://github.com/andrewhampton/dotfiles/blob/master/hammer...
- tnajdek 9y ago
  Another one is called slate: https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate Very flexible, my favorite feature is that configs can be written in JS, here's mine: https://gist.github.com/tnajdek/48ea2a2ccac365b91f29 https://gist.github.com/tnajdek/48ea2a2ccac365b91f29
  - zdw 9y ago
    Slate is my favorite as well - there's a fork that accumulated a bunch of patches over the years as the original author appears to have abandoned it: https://github.com/mattr-/slate https://github.com/mattr-/slate Unfortunately, it was declared unmaintained as of a few days ago...
  - lowboy 9y ago
    Yup been using Slate for a while now. I wrote a grid system for it that I find works well: https://github.com/jjt/ac-slater https://github.com/jjt/ac-slater
hultner 9y ago
I can highly recommend kvm[1] for those of you who are interested in tiling window managers for macOS. Another pearl is Amethyst[2]. I've used both of them (and others such as xnomad) extensively for the past 5 years or so and must say that I'm very pleased. [1] https://koekeishiya.github.io/kwm/ https://koekeishiya.github.io/kwm/ [2] https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst
- tuananh 9y ago
  Another vote for Amethyst. Also tried kwm but it doesn't work as well as Amethyst. However, kwm potential is huge.
  - ooqr 9y ago
    I've used Amethyst day-to-day on my work laptop for several months and overall I'm happy with it. It's a bit idiosyncratic, but that's more the fault of Apple for not making it easy to develop such a plugin. It's strange that a company focused on good design and ease of use is beholden to ancient window management traditions such as manually dragging every single window into the dimensions you want. When you open and close terminal windows to various servers dozens of times a day, need a window open on the side with a site showing documentation on this or that, it just doesn't make sense to waste time doing something that could be automated.
    - jorvi 9y ago
      Funny that you mention 'ancient window management'. Tiling window managers are basically a continuation of terminal muxing and are thus more ancient than stacking window managers. Personally, I think going hybrid (stacking window management + spectacle/magnet.me) is the way to go. Best of both worlds :)
      - ooqr 9y ago
        Fair point about my word choice. I just think we can do better is what I mean. I think I agree with you, but I'd need to see it in action. Currently I just use workspaces for whatever I'd use stacking for.
jaequery 9y ago
i just need a window manager that performs the following for free: - hotkey for full screeen window - hotkey for center screen window - hotkey for left/right half window - hotkey for move window to prev/next monitor - hotkey for resize window by mouse (a la bettertouchtool) - hotkey for move window by mouse (a la bettertouchtool) currently i'm using a combination of these to do the following, but i feel its a bit overkill when all i need are what i described above: - bettertouchtool - sizeUp
- lloeki 9y ago
  > for free If you want it so badly, why not pay for the ones that exist?
- hibbelig 9y ago
  Phoenix can do this (https://github.com/kasper/phoenix https://github.com/kasper/phoenix). Hammerspoon can also do this (hammerspoon.org). Phoenix is programmed in JS, it seems faster for me, has fewer features. (But what you want is there.) Hammerspoon is programmed in Lua, it's slower (to start up at least), and it has more features. (I've got a "vi normal mode" config after Karabiner doesn't work with macOS Sierra.)
joshuaswaney 9y ago
Magnet is great if all you're looking for is hotkeys to arrange/maximize your windows and move them between monitors.
hmans 9y ago
Hammerspoon
Archio 9y ago
I can't recommend enough the first app I install on any new Mac, ShiftIt: https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt - It's open source + free - Once you install it and learn the keyboard shortcuts you basically can forget it's there because it stays out of your way
LeoPanthera 9y ago
I use Moom for this, it has a killer feature (for me) that I haven't seen anywhere else, the ability to leave n pixels between windows, and between windows and the edge of the screen.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  This looks great, definitely going to give it a whirl. I have to use a Windows 7 PC for work (proprietary software for a laser cutter) and have AutoHotKey running about 30 customer keyboard shortcuts, so when I get home to my Linux and Mac laptops I that I use for casual computer use I struggle to remember key combos for window management. Moom looks like it solves that problem by novel use of existing window manipulation buttons. Thanks!
dzhiurgis 9y ago
I use option+shift+a/d for left/right snapping and option+shift+e for full screen, all mapped in BetterTouchTool. But I do feel I need more flexibility for corner and horizontal snaps. Anyone got ideas how to do it better (I do not have numpad)?
alexellisuk 9y ago
Don't most Mac users have a Macbook with effectively no Numeric Keypad? I use an external KB but it's tenkeyless. Some other default bindings would be useful.

109 points by janten 9y ago

There's also spectacle (https://www.spectacleapp.com/ https://www.spectacleapp.com/), however this seems worth trying out, especially due to the ease of remembering the layout config shortcuts

matt2000 9y ago
Came here to recommend spectacle too. I basically only use the keyboard shortcuts to send windows to the left half, or right half of the screen. If you hit them again it does 2/3rds or 1/3rds of that side of the screen which is helpful on lower resolutions. That pretty much covers me for window management.
- TomAnthony 9y ago
  Yeah - the simplicity of it, over something like this one posted, makes it much nicer. I also use for move windows to the other display.
Brajeshwar 9y ago
My default utility too; for quite a while.
hexagonsun 9y ago
I love Spectacle, highly recommended!
behnamoh 9y ago
Spectacle is one of those apps that has persuaded me to stay on mac and not switch back to Windows. But really, what mac needs now is larger quit/minimize/maximize buttons on each window. Most of the times on Windows, I would just click on the corner of the screen, knowing that I'm clicking on the exit button automatically. Closing windows on Windows became much of a gesture. But as for the mac, I have to precisely click on the red button to close that window, or otherwise use CMD+W shortcut.

hayden592 9y ago

Looks neat and I'll have to try it out. Just curious what makes this different from Spectacle or Shiftit?

sambe 9y ago

I always used Divvy for this, but IIRC it's paid only. Looks like a nice start.

janten 9y ago
Author here. I actually started this project after buying Divvy. Divvy has many more features but I could never set it up just right. In particular I found no way to use the grid feature without the mouse (other than assigning shortcuts to pre-defined layouts). So I scratched my own itch and created Keypad Layout as a simple no-frills replacement that works exactly the way I want it to.
- sambe 9y ago
  Yes, I ended up using pre-defined shortcuts for common areas. It seemed like a massive downer after paying money for it, but in the end covered 95% of my use-cases acceptably.
- rmateu 9y ago
  I'm loving this model. Thanks for sharing. I own Magnet, Moom, Cinch and a few others. I always end up abandoning because the powerful keyboard features get in the way when you're in an actual workflow, and the basic ones make me reach for the mouse.
tyingq 9y ago
I'm wondering if Divvy is going to be hit by this patent holder: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14333957 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14333957 This project seems safe, as the UI doesn't show a preview grid you can drag over.
- tonyhb 9y ago
  According to that thread's comments the patent was granted in 2011 whilst Divvy was around in 2010, so hopefully it's safe.
  - 9y ago

AndrewHampton 9y ago

I'll drop in the customary link to hammerspoon: http://www.hammerspoon.org http://www.hammerspoon.org It has a couple libraries for window management. One is plug and play, the other is lower level. Here is my config for setting up a 2x2 grid: https://github.com/andrewhampton/dotfiles/blob/master/hammerspoon/.hammerspoon/grid.lua https://github.com/andrewhampton/dotfiles/blob/master/hammer...

tnajdek 9y ago
Another one is called slate: https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate Very flexible, my favorite feature is that configs can be written in JS, here's mine: https://gist.github.com/tnajdek/48ea2a2ccac365b91f29 https://gist.github.com/tnajdek/48ea2a2ccac365b91f29
- zdw 9y ago
  Slate is my favorite as well - there's a fork that accumulated a bunch of patches over the years as the original author appears to have abandoned it: https://github.com/mattr-/slate https://github.com/mattr-/slate Unfortunately, it was declared unmaintained as of a few days ago...
- lowboy 9y ago
  Yup been using Slate for a while now. I wrote a grid system for it that I find works well: https://github.com/jjt/ac-slater https://github.com/jjt/ac-slater

hultner 9y ago

I can highly recommend kvm[1] for those of you who are interested in tiling window managers for macOS. Another pearl is Amethyst[2]. I've used both of them (and others such as xnomad) extensively for the past 5 years or so and must say that I'm very pleased. [1] https://koekeishiya.github.io/kwm/ https://koekeishiya.github.io/kwm/ [2] https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst

tuananh 9y ago
Another vote for Amethyst. Also tried kwm but it doesn't work as well as Amethyst. However, kwm potential is huge.
- ooqr 9y ago
  I've used Amethyst day-to-day on my work laptop for several months and overall I'm happy with it. It's a bit idiosyncratic, but that's more the fault of Apple for not making it easy to develop such a plugin. It's strange that a company focused on good design and ease of use is beholden to ancient window management traditions such as manually dragging every single window into the dimensions you want. When you open and close terminal windows to various servers dozens of times a day, need a window open on the side with a site showing documentation on this or that, it just doesn't make sense to waste time doing something that could be automated.
  - jorvi 9y ago
    Funny that you mention 'ancient window management'. Tiling window managers are basically a continuation of terminal muxing and are thus more ancient than stacking window managers. Personally, I think going hybrid (stacking window management + spectacle/magnet.me) is the way to go. Best of both worlds :)
    - ooqr 9y ago
      Fair point about my word choice. I just think we can do better is what I mean. I think I agree with you, but I'd need to see it in action. Currently I just use workspaces for whatever I'd use stacking for.

jaequery 9y ago

i just need a window manager that performs the following for free: - hotkey for full screeen window - hotkey for center screen window - hotkey for left/right half window - hotkey for move window to prev/next monitor - hotkey for resize window by mouse (a la bettertouchtool) - hotkey for move window by mouse (a la bettertouchtool) currently i'm using a combination of these to do the following, but i feel its a bit overkill when all i need are what i described above: - bettertouchtool - sizeUp

lloeki 9y ago
> for free If you want it so badly, why not pay for the ones that exist?
hibbelig 9y ago
Phoenix can do this (https://github.com/kasper/phoenix https://github.com/kasper/phoenix). Hammerspoon can also do this (hammerspoon.org). Phoenix is programmed in JS, it seems faster for me, has fewer features. (But what you want is there.) Hammerspoon is programmed in Lua, it's slower (to start up at least), and it has more features. (I've got a "vi normal mode" config after Karabiner doesn't work with macOS Sierra.)

joshuaswaney 9y ago

Magnet is great if all you're looking for is hotkeys to arrange/maximize your windows and move them between monitors.

hmans 9y ago

Hammerspoon

Archio 9y ago

I can't recommend enough the first app I install on any new Mac, ShiftIt: https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt - It's open source + free - Once you install it and learn the keyboard shortcuts you basically can forget it's there because it stays out of your way

LeoPanthera 9y ago

I use Moom for this, it has a killer feature (for me) that I haven't seen anywhere else, the ability to leave n pixels between windows, and between windows and the edge of the screen.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
This looks great, definitely going to give it a whirl. I have to use a Windows 7 PC for work (proprietary software for a laser cutter) and have AutoHotKey running about 30 customer keyboard shortcuts, so when I get home to my Linux and Mac laptops I that I use for casual computer use I struggle to remember key combos for window management. Moom looks like it solves that problem by novel use of existing window manipulation buttons. Thanks!

dzhiurgis 9y ago

I use option+shift+a/d for left/right snapping and option+shift+e for full screen, all mapped in BetterTouchTool. But I do feel I need more flexibility for corner and horizontal snaps. Anyone got ideas how to do it better (I do not have numpad)?

alexellisuk 9y ago

Don't most Mac users have a Macbook with effectively no Numeric Keypad? I use an external KB but it's tenkeyless. Some other default bindings would be useful.