4 ms·

Several of the things listed are false (like the lack of ability to open files with your keyboard, which you can do with cmd-⬇) and app window switching (cmd+~)

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kuschku 4y ago
If you say the author's issue is invalid, then please explain: How can you configure macOS to have a keyboard shortcut that also makes sense on ISO keyboards to switch between all windows of all apps in a single UI?
- constantlm 4y ago
  Please closely read my comment again - I said "Several of the things listed are false", not "the author's issue is invalid". The author would have had a stronger case had he not listed things that are just not true.
  - kuschku 4y ago
    Maybe you missed it, but I'd ask you again to explain how the author's complaint of traditional Alt-Tab (as described in my comment) missing is "false"
- pwinnski 4y ago
  Why do you think that "windows" are the appropriate level at which to consider things, rather than a hierarchy in which one first choose the appropriate "application" and then switches between windows for that application, if more than one exist? Using a "single UI" to do two different things seems like an odd choice, albeit clearly one you're used to.
  - layer8 4y ago
    Not the GP, but I routinely have use-cases where I switch back and forth between (say) two windows of one app and one window of another app. That, is, for a given task I have a “working set” consisting of windows of different apps, involving more than one same-app window for at least one of the apps. It would be annoying to have to switch between different keyboard shortcuts, instead of just getting LRU behavior within that “working set” of windows with a single keyboard shortcut. Which app the currently active window belongs to shouldn’t matter for switching back to the previously active window (or the second orevious one, etc.).
    - pwinnski 4y ago
      My experience on MacOS is that whichever window for a given app was current when you last switched away will be current when you switch back, so it's still a single combo-keystroke to switch as you're describing. My point was that people tend to favor whichever approach they're most used to. Switching only at the window level does "lose" information about the hierarchy, while switching with the hierarchy in place requires one to track the hierarchy which they might prefer not to do. One is not necessarily better than the other, and there are use-cases for both.
      - layer8 4y ago
        > whichever window for a given app was current when you last switched away will be current when you switch back The problem is “for a given app”. If I want to switch back to the previous window, I have to use a different shortcut depending on whether that window was from the same app or not. Similarly, if I want to switch back to the window before that, I may have to first use one shortcut to switch back to the other app, and then use the other shortcut to switch within that app. If the windows represent documents, this roughly means that when switching between documents, you have to use a different shortcut depending on whether the type of the document you’re switching to happens to be the same or different from the one you’re currently on. This isn’t really intuitive, and arguably entails more cognitive overhead. I agree that a lot comes down what you’re used to, but there are also good reasons to prefer one approach over the other.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

kuschku 4y ago

If you say the author's issue is invalid, then please explain: How can you configure macOS to have a keyboard shortcut that also makes sense on ISO keyboards to switch between all windows of all apps in a single UI?

constantlm 4y ago
Please closely read my comment again - I said "Several of the things listed are false", not "the author's issue is invalid". The author would have had a stronger case had he not listed things that are just not true.
- kuschku 4y ago
  Maybe you missed it, but I'd ask you again to explain how the author's complaint of traditional Alt-Tab (as described in my comment) missing is "false"
pwinnski 4y ago
Why do you think that "windows" are the appropriate level at which to consider things, rather than a hierarchy in which one first choose the appropriate "application" and then switches between windows for that application, if more than one exist? Using a "single UI" to do two different things seems like an odd choice, albeit clearly one you're used to.
- layer8 4y ago
  Not the GP, but I routinely have use-cases where I switch back and forth between (say) two windows of one app and one window of another app. That, is, for a given task I have a “working set” consisting of windows of different apps, involving more than one same-app window for at least one of the apps. It would be annoying to have to switch between different keyboard shortcuts, instead of just getting LRU behavior within that “working set” of windows with a single keyboard shortcut. Which app the currently active window belongs to shouldn’t matter for switching back to the previously active window (or the second orevious one, etc.).
  - pwinnski 4y ago
    My experience on MacOS is that whichever window for a given app was current when you last switched away will be current when you switch back, so it's still a single combo-keystroke to switch as you're describing. My point was that people tend to favor whichever approach they're most used to. Switching only at the window level does "lose" information about the hierarchy, while switching with the hierarchy in place requires one to track the hierarchy which they might prefer not to do. One is not necessarily better than the other, and there are use-cases for both.
    - layer8 4y ago
      > whichever window for a given app was current when you last switched away will be current when you switch back The problem is “for a given app”. If I want to switch back to the previous window, I have to use a different shortcut depending on whether that window was from the same app or not. Similarly, if I want to switch back to the window before that, I may have to first use one shortcut to switch back to the other app, and then use the other shortcut to switch within that app. If the windows represent documents, this roughly means that when switching between documents, you have to use a different shortcut depending on whether the type of the document you’re switching to happens to be the same or different from the one you’re currently on. This isn’t really intuitive, and arguably entails more cognitive overhead. I agree that a lot comes down what you’re used to, but there are also good reasons to prefer one approach over the other.