3 ms·

A more important factor in the app-switching use-case, imo, is that Spotlight or Alfred require just static unchanging input, so you can bash it out without sec

by aasasd 4y ago

A more important factor in the app-switching use-case, imo, is that Spotlight or Alfred require just static unchanging input, so you can bash it out without second thought, and usually without looking at the displayed result (after learning the necessary text to trigger the app selection). When cmd-tabbing, you have to look at which app is under the highlight ‘cursor’ and where is the one you want, then position the cursor on the desired app—this all keeps visual recognition engaged and requires conscious choice at many steps. This is also the reason why both mouse-clicking and touch-tapping are slow compared to keyboard typing: you likewise need to look at what is where on the screen, then aim with the mouse or the thumb, instead of just jerking the fingers to keys that are in muscle memory.

atonse 4y ago
You’re absolutely right about not even having to look. When my spotlight index gets corrupted and I command space, type “safari” or “tower” or “iterm” and then hit enter without thinking, it doesn’t find the app but then opens safari with a google search for whatever app. It is always jarring cuz I’m not paying attention to what matched, and instead it opens safari instead of the app window I expected. To make things worse, I tried switching back to Alfred but it it seems to just piggyback off spotlight for finding apps. Otherwise I would switch back to Alfred if it just had a “my index doesn’t get corrupted like spotlight” as a feature.
- aasasd 4y ago
  IIRC in Alfred particular folders can be added, to be searched for apps. If this works separately from main search, it might help—you'll probably need to create a folder and dump symlinks to the apps in there. Otherwise, apps can conceivably be added as keywords or something. Rather annoying since it won't pick up new apps automatically, but oh well. Myself, I prefer Alfred anyway since Spotlight doesn't do too much aside from launching apps, converting currencies and occasionally looking for files (the latter is not so useful when there are thousands of third-party code files on the machine, and Finder is not my IDE anyway). P.S. Also btw, at least with Alfred, I don't need even a full word for most apps—just two to four letters: i.e. ‘fi’ is Firefox, and ‘do’ is Double Commander. Alfred quickly ranks results higher if they were invoked previously for the same input, so the desired app pops up in the results just after a few letters, and this behavior sticks around without perturbation from re-indexing. This also means that at first it pays to enter those couple letters and select the app with the arrow keys, since Alfred distinguishes between inputs of various length—i.e. might learn for ‘firefox’ but not for ‘fi’.
- tough 4y ago
  Raycast?

by aasasd 4y ago

atonse 4y ago

You’re absolutely right about not even having to look. When my spotlight index gets corrupted and I command space, type “safari” or “tower” or “iterm” and then hit enter without thinking, it doesn’t find the app but then opens safari with a google search for whatever app. It is always jarring cuz I’m not paying attention to what matched, and instead it opens safari instead of the app window I expected. To make things worse, I tried switching back to Alfred but it it seems to just piggyback off spotlight for finding apps. Otherwise I would switch back to Alfred if it just had a “my index doesn’t get corrupted like spotlight” as a feature.

aasasd 4y ago
IIRC in Alfred particular folders can be added, to be searched for apps. If this works separately from main search, it might help—you'll probably need to create a folder and dump symlinks to the apps in there. Otherwise, apps can conceivably be added as keywords or something. Rather annoying since it won't pick up new apps automatically, but oh well. Myself, I prefer Alfred anyway since Spotlight doesn't do too much aside from launching apps, converting currencies and occasionally looking for files (the latter is not so useful when there are thousands of third-party code files on the machine, and Finder is not my IDE anyway). P.S. Also btw, at least with Alfred, I don't need even a full word for most apps—just two to four letters: i.e. ‘fi’ is Firefox, and ‘do’ is Double Commander. Alfred quickly ranks results higher if they were invoked previously for the same input, so the desired app pops up in the results just after a few letters, and this behavior sticks around without perturbation from re-indexing. This also means that at first it pays to enter those couple letters and select the app with the arrow keys, since Alfred distinguishes between inputs of various length—i.e. might learn for ‘firefox’ but not for ‘fi’.
tough 4y ago
Raycast?