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And yet actual window management on macOS is bizarre (wtf is with the maximization behavior, that it seems each app can decide on its own) and inflexible. Tilin

by pxc 5y ago

And yet actual window management on macOS is bizarre (wtf is with the maximization behavior, that it seems each app can decide on its own) and inflexible. Tiling, snapping, alt-drag, and shading are all missing. Automation, used to emulate those features, is cumbersome, slow, and, yes— janky. (It's way more work to customize or automate window behavior on macOS than on Plasma, for example.) Pretty much every actual window management feature on macOS aside from dragging windows by the titlebar is janky as hell. :-\ (It is neat that display server crashes/restarts on macOS don't cause you to lose your graphical session, though. Idk if any F/OSS WMs have that.)

irae 5y ago
The UX discussion is not directly related to the technical discussion. Apple has its own history and more than one mode is supported. Feels to me somewhat of a legacy problem. That said, their stability and flexibility is unmatched. Windows got a lot better recently, and they have a harder surface to deal with (orders of magnitude more hardware to support). But from an outsiders perspective Apple's feel like the best balance right now.
jen20 5y ago
> wtf is with the maximization behavior There isn't a maximise behaviour. Per the interface guidance, that button is called "zoom" [1], not maximise, and it therefore makes sense that apps do something different depending on what they need to zoom in a way that makes sense for them. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/windows-and-views/window-anatomy/ https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
- wmf 5y ago
  Zoom was replaced with maximize in Lion in 2011.
  - jen20 5y ago
    Someone should probably tell the team that writes the docs then... The button now serves dual purpose as "full screen" and "zoom" (with option). It's not "maximise" though.
machinevision 5y ago
Couldn't agree more. It used to be much better. I remember on Mac OS 8, the window manager made intuitive sense and got out of the way in most cases. I don't know when it deteriorated on Mac OS X, but I've recently started to use Rectangle a lot (https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/). This has been really useful.
whywhywhywhy 5y ago
I almost never maximize windows and if you're someone who uses their desktop spatially like me MacOS is the only OS that manages to offer a usable and jank free version of that. Windows and Linux just can't come close. I get why Linux never will for good reasons but Windows has absolutely no excuse.

by pxc 5y ago

irae 5y ago

The UX discussion is not directly related to the technical discussion. Apple has its own history and more than one mode is supported. Feels to me somewhat of a legacy problem. That said, their stability and flexibility is unmatched. Windows got a lot better recently, and they have a harder surface to deal with (orders of magnitude more hardware to support). But from an outsiders perspective Apple's feel like the best balance right now.

jen20 5y ago

> wtf is with the maximization behavior There isn't a maximise behaviour. Per the interface guidance, that button is called "zoom" [1], not maximise, and it therefore makes sense that apps do something different depending on what they need to zoom in a way that makes sense for them. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/windows-and-views/window-anatomy/ https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

wmf 5y ago
Zoom was replaced with maximize in Lion in 2011.
- jen20 5y ago
  Someone should probably tell the team that writes the docs then... The button now serves dual purpose as "full screen" and "zoom" (with option). It's not "maximise" though.

machinevision 5y ago

Couldn't agree more. It used to be much better. I remember on Mac OS 8, the window manager made intuitive sense and got out of the way in most cases. I don't know when it deteriorated on Mac OS X, but I've recently started to use Rectangle a lot (https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/). This has been really useful.

whywhywhywhy 5y ago

I almost never maximize windows and if you're someone who uses their desktop spatially like me MacOS is the only OS that manages to offer a usable and jank free version of that. Windows and Linux just can't come close. I get why Linux never will for good reasons but Windows has absolutely no excuse.