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I just got a new MacBook after using Windows, and am trying to do things the "Mac" way, before I attempt to customize it too much. I kinda like Safari, although

I just got a new MacBook after using Windows, and am trying to do things the "Mac" way, before I attempt to customize it too much. I kinda like Safari, although it has weird bugs (e.g.: if you use tab groups, it will randomly navigate back and forth). So I like the idea of a better version of Safari. The killer feature is the support of WebExtensions (ad blocker!) One thing that is really important to me is bookmark sync. It would be really great if you could implement Firefox sync (the source is available, I'm not sure if there are license problems in using it from a third party browser. In any case, if your extension model is powerful enough, somebody could write an open source extension to do it). This is the one feature for which I could imagine buying a pro version. Another thing that I think would be cool is a tab filter. Press a hotkey, get a list of all tabs. Then press "hacker" and it highlights all tabs with hacker(news), and ⌘-w to close them. Or you could move all tabs with "office" to a new window. Or maybe you find a clever UI to select and close all old, not recently used tabs. This would be great to clean up all the old tabs that accumulate.

dotancohen 5y ago
> I just got a new MacBook after using Windows, and am trying to do things the "Mac" way > Press a hotkey, get a list of all tabs. I recently tried a Mac for six months, coming from KDE on Debian-based systems. I also tried to do things the Mac way. I hate to break it to you, and am really trying to not be condescending, but despite Mac's famed usability a hotkey and then filter is too "hacker" to be "the Mac way". The Mac way is one click to get to things, even if that click generates dozens of possible things to get to. Filtering, completion, etc feel like a Linux accent on Mac (I don't know about Windows, haven't used it in two decades). You probably already know that e.g. Tridactyl offers such features in Firefox but I get trying to use a Mac browser. If you're jumping into the Mac Way, go all the way. Maybe it is better, I don't know, but sticking to your old ideas of what a workflow should be will just make the Mac frustrating.
- swiftcoder 5y ago
  > despite Mac's famed usability a hotkey and then filter is too "hacker" to be "the Mac way". The Mac way is one click to get to things, even if that click generates dozens of possible things to get to. Filtering, completion, etc feel like a Linux accent on Mac The ubiquity of spotlight (for example, the global CMD-space hotkey) throughout Mac OS would seem to belie that view
  - dotancohen 5y ago
    Yes, spotlight is the single, centralized such facility on a Mac. That kind of proves my point - other Mac applications (as opposed to cross-platform apps such as VS Code) do not reimplement this interface. That said, I'm happy to be shown wrong by someone with a username "swiftcoder"! I do not pretend to be a Mac expert, just someone who got frustrated trying to do things the Mac way. I've got a list of frustrations, if you'd like to dispell some more.
    - swiftcoder 5y ago
      You are correct, but spotlight is a lot more ubiquitous than folks tend to give it credit for. It powers the search in Finder's view of the filesystem, as well as "smart folder" filesystem filters. It powers search boxes in the Open/Save dialogs across every application. Every native app can choose to integrate its internal data model into Spotlight (via Core Spotlight), and use it to either provide in-app search or plug it's own data into the system-wide spotlight search... Unfortunately, a lot of popular cross-platform apps (VS Code et al being obvious offenders) don't choose to provide spotlight integrations, so a lot of folks have never really been exposed to the full suite of capabilities
- dmitriid 5y ago
  > I hate to break it to you, and am really trying to not be condescending, but despite Mac's famed usability a hotkey and then filter is too "hacker" to be "the Mac way". This has been built in to Safari for quite some time now. View -> Show Tab Overview (default hotkey Cmd + Shift + \). And then you type to search.
  - dotancohen 5y ago
    I see, thank you, I absolutely love being shown wrong - that's a great way to learn.
  - captainmuon 5y ago
    A great example of Cunningham's Law, thanks :-). You can also make a Pinch gesture. And with a German keyboard, it is Cmd + Shift + #. This is great for finding a tab. The thing I was proposing would go a step further, and allow you to close all the filtered tabs or to move them to a separate window, to clean up your browser.
- egypturnash 5y ago
  There is no one “Mac Way”. There is the way the Mac operates for a novice. That is entirely left clicks on icons. There is the way the Mac operates for someone like me, who has been using them since the days of Classic. That is full of hotkeys and advanced features discovered over the years. A hotkey to invoke a filter would be entirely in the scope of this Way of the Mac. (And the filter would also probably be implemented as a “search” field somehow connected to the tab bar, for the novices to discover it.) The Mac Way includes things like Automator (or whatever they're calling the current incarnation of their attempts to make generating simple scripts a point-and-click task). The Mac Way includes the Keyboard panel in the prefs, which lets you change the menu hotkeys of any app on your machine.
- captainmuon 5y ago
  To be clear: I think that feature is something that would be useful on any desktop OS. I actually started implementing it as a firefox extension on Windows/Linux, but never had time to finish it. A feature like this would be orthogonal to the "look & feel" of the platform. With "Mac way" I mean forcing myself to learn all the shortcuts and gestures, instead of redefining them to be like on Windows, and using built-in or native apps when available. Nevertheless, if I look at my colleagues computers, the "Mac way" seems to include hundreds of open tabs just like the "Windows way", and I was suggesting a new tool to deal with that issue.
freediver 5y ago
> Another thing that I think would be cool is a tab filter. Press a hotkey, get a list of all tabs. Then press "hacker" and it highlights all tabs with hacker(news), and ⌘-w to close them. Or you could move all tabs with "office" to a new window. Or maybe you find a clever UI to select and close all old, not recently used tabs. This would be great to clean up all the old tabs that accumulate. This sounds like a great idea, please suggest it to https://orionfeedback.org https://orionfeedback.org

dotancohen 5y ago

> I just got a new MacBook after using Windows, and am trying to do things the "Mac" way > Press a hotkey, get a list of all tabs. I recently tried a Mac for six months, coming from KDE on Debian-based systems. I also tried to do things the Mac way. I hate to break it to you, and am really trying to not be condescending, but despite Mac's famed usability a hotkey and then filter is too "hacker" to be "the Mac way". The Mac way is one click to get to things, even if that click generates dozens of possible things to get to. Filtering, completion, etc feel like a Linux accent on Mac (I don't know about Windows, haven't used it in two decades). You probably already know that e.g. Tridactyl offers such features in Firefox but I get trying to use a Mac browser. If you're jumping into the Mac Way, go all the way. Maybe it is better, I don't know, but sticking to your old ideas of what a workflow should be will just make the Mac frustrating.

swiftcoder 5y ago
> despite Mac's famed usability a hotkey and then filter is too "hacker" to be "the Mac way". The Mac way is one click to get to things, even if that click generates dozens of possible things to get to. Filtering, completion, etc feel like a Linux accent on Mac The ubiquity of spotlight (for example, the global CMD-space hotkey) throughout Mac OS would seem to belie that view
- dotancohen 5y ago
  Yes, spotlight is the single, centralized such facility on a Mac. That kind of proves my point - other Mac applications (as opposed to cross-platform apps such as VS Code) do not reimplement this interface. That said, I'm happy to be shown wrong by someone with a username "swiftcoder"! I do not pretend to be a Mac expert, just someone who got frustrated trying to do things the Mac way. I've got a list of frustrations, if you'd like to dispell some more.
  - swiftcoder 5y ago
    You are correct, but spotlight is a lot more ubiquitous than folks tend to give it credit for. It powers the search in Finder's view of the filesystem, as well as "smart folder" filesystem filters. It powers search boxes in the Open/Save dialogs across every application. Every native app can choose to integrate its internal data model into Spotlight (via Core Spotlight), and use it to either provide in-app search or plug it's own data into the system-wide spotlight search... Unfortunately, a lot of popular cross-platform apps (VS Code et al being obvious offenders) don't choose to provide spotlight integrations, so a lot of folks have never really been exposed to the full suite of capabilities
dmitriid 5y ago
> I hate to break it to you, and am really trying to not be condescending, but despite Mac's famed usability a hotkey and then filter is too "hacker" to be "the Mac way". This has been built in to Safari for quite some time now. View -> Show Tab Overview (default hotkey Cmd + Shift + \). And then you type to search.
- dotancohen 5y ago
  I see, thank you, I absolutely love being shown wrong - that's a great way to learn.
- captainmuon 5y ago
  A great example of Cunningham's Law, thanks :-). You can also make a Pinch gesture. And with a German keyboard, it is Cmd + Shift + #. This is great for finding a tab. The thing I was proposing would go a step further, and allow you to close all the filtered tabs or to move them to a separate window, to clean up your browser.
egypturnash 5y ago
There is no one “Mac Way”. There is the way the Mac operates for a novice. That is entirely left clicks on icons. There is the way the Mac operates for someone like me, who has been using them since the days of Classic. That is full of hotkeys and advanced features discovered over the years. A hotkey to invoke a filter would be entirely in the scope of this Way of the Mac. (And the filter would also probably be implemented as a “search” field somehow connected to the tab bar, for the novices to discover it.) The Mac Way includes things like Automator (or whatever they're calling the current incarnation of their attempts to make generating simple scripts a point-and-click task). The Mac Way includes the Keyboard panel in the prefs, which lets you change the menu hotkeys of any app on your machine.
captainmuon 5y ago
To be clear: I think that feature is something that would be useful on any desktop OS. I actually started implementing it as a firefox extension on Windows/Linux, but never had time to finish it. A feature like this would be orthogonal to the "look & feel" of the platform. With "Mac way" I mean forcing myself to learn all the shortcuts and gestures, instead of redefining them to be like on Windows, and using built-in or native apps when available. Nevertheless, if I look at my colleagues computers, the "Mac way" seems to include hundreds of open tabs just like the "Windows way", and I was suggesting a new tool to deal with that issue.

freediver 5y ago

> Another thing that I think would be cool is a tab filter. Press a hotkey, get a list of all tabs. Then press "hacker" and it highlights all tabs with hacker(news), and ⌘-w to close them. Or you could move all tabs with "office" to a new window. Or maybe you find a clever UI to select and close all old, not recently used tabs. This would be great to clean up all the old tabs that accumulate. This sounds like a great idea, please suggest it to https://orionfeedback.org https://orionfeedback.org