34 ms·

Witch – macOS window switcher replacement

150 points by jackdh 3y ago

speedgoose 3y ago
How does it compare to AltTab? https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
- danvayn 3y ago
  looks like it has some more features than alt tab that are usually covered by other programs. quick open like Alfred, hibernation like Franz/Ferdium.
- behnamoh 3y ago
  This is what I use and would recommend. the nice thing about it is that you can activate the switcher using keyboard and then hover over any window without even clicking on it. when you release the keyboard shortcut, you switch to that window. it also allows me to hide certain apps from the switcher. like if you have a terminal, you might wanna set up a keyboard shortcut for that and forget about it.
- slimebot80 3y ago
  I like alt Tab, great project and it's open source and has nice maintainers. Just wish I could turn off the screen recorder feature, as I don't trust any app that does that without exceptional reasons. (In my case, I don't care about thumbnails)
vxNsr 3y ago
Wow this is fantastic. I was gifted a MacBook a few months ago and I am continually surprised to learn how many features I just take for granted in windows. MacOS often feels very similar to Linux in that the core OS is very barebones and needs a ton of extensions to really be useable. The difference being in Linux most of the extensions are OSS while in MacOS they’re each $9.99.
- sylens 3y ago
  It really just comes down to a different paradigm. I agree that I prefer how Windows handles a lot of things and gives you a lot built-in these days, especially once you add PowerToys
- bosie 3y ago
  Are they oss though? I am struggling to get something similar to bartender and little snitch on my Linux dev machine but so far, I couldn’t even find alternatives.
  - stereopixels 3y ago
    For a Little Snitch alternative on Linux have you tried OpenSnitch? https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
- marcellus23 3y ago
  This comes down a lot to your personal expectations. As someone who grew up on both Mac and Windows equally, I find its Windows that tends to lack really basic stuff that I take for granted in my day-to-day Mac usage.
I_am_tiberius 3y ago
I switched from KDE to Mac some months back and I'm shocked how many window management features are missing. I'm especially disappointed about the dock. I would love being able to see native window previews when hovering over an application icon. Also I would like to split the dock into the different spaces (virtual desktops). Currently the dock seems not to be considering the fact tha Mac OS supports spaces.
- chrisfinazzo 3y ago
  I still want macOS to "borrow" (Read: steal) window snapping from Windows. The mere existence of MultiView on Apple TV gives me hope that someone is at least thinking about how to implement such a system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orl5SlmIceA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orl5SlmIceA
  - bgm1975 3y ago
    Have you tried Magnet[1] yet? I’ve been using it for years and really love it. TBH, I prefer it over way Windows does it (forcing you to decide wha goes in the “other” side of the screen). [1] https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/ https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/
    - winkywooster 3y ago
      magnet's keybindings for me are the best defaults—they are very intuitive, and don't conflict with emacs. rectangle is an alternative i've tried, but magnet is the one for me.
  - psychomugs 3y ago
    BetterSnapTool is the first thing I install on macOS.
  - SamuelAdams 3y ago
    Try Rectangle: https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/
gregorias 3y ago
I'm already using [Contexts](https://contexts.co/ https://contexts.co/) for this purpose, and I don't think I need anything else.
- DavideNL 3y ago
  I also use Contexts, and prefer it over AltTab and others…
  - TMWNN 3y ago
    I used AltTab first, then switched to Contexts because AltTab imposed a serious performance penalty on my older Intel Mac. Did you also experience that?
    - DavideNL 3y ago
      No, i'm using an M1. But indeed, i did notice AltTab is sluggish...
      - TMWNN 3y ago
        After moving from AltTab to Contexts, I also switched to Apple Silicon. While satisfied with Contexts, I wondered whether Apple Silicon would have obviated the performance difference. Thanks for answering that question.
- keybits 3y ago
  Contexts is excellent. There's a free trial. Keyboard FTW! I configure it to be a minimal cmd-tab switcher that shows all windows for each app. I disable the sidebar and other unnecessary stuff.
- devbent 3y ago
  Contexts is amazing, being able to search window titles is how I do almost all my navigation between apps now days, especially when I have code editors open to multiple (4+) different projects. I have an equivalent installed on Windows (I forget its name) and it is likewise just as amazingly useful.
nerdjon 3y ago
Whenever I see tools like this for Mac I can't help but wonder if I am seriously missing something. Unlike when I use Windows, I just don't use command (alt) tab on Mac. I rely almost entirely on gestures on my trackpad (three fingers swipe up to see all my windows that are not minimized). With the added benefit of that allowing me to drag those windows to other screens/desktops right from that UI. Is there some power user advantage I am missing out on here or is this sort of making Mac work more like Windows? On Windows I use alt tab all the time just because... I find its windows management sucks compared to Mac.
- dantehemerson 3y ago
  I found it useful because I try to avoid using mouse as much as possible.
- dieulot 3y ago
  Alt+Tab lets you switch to a previous window instantly. MacOS’s UI sluggishness is jarring when you’re a power user from another platform.
  - behnamoh 3y ago
    I wish we could remove the animation between spaces on macos. there’s always a delay before you get to use the space you switched to.
  - yboris 3y ago
    Unsure if you mean AltTab - https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ -- it's my favorite
    - brimstedt 3y ago
      AltTab and Rectangle is what makes Mac DE usable.
      - ostenning 3y ago
spsesk117 3y ago
Witch looks awesome, and I think has a killer feature I've been looking for for a while on linux (slightly off topic). I use rofi on linux to surface a dialog that allows me to execute programs, surface an X window, or change to a different tmux session. Rofi natively supports the first two, the tmux pane/session switcher being a little 10 line extension I wrote in bash. I love rofi and the ability to do this, but there is a 'white whale' in this workflow setup that I have not been able to crack: A rofi dialog that displays and surfaces browser tabs. I have fought with chromium dev mode/flags/options on several occasions trying to plumb together something like this, but cannot for the life of me figure it out; apparently chromium does not really want you to get a list of tabs from outside the browser. Has anyone with a similar workflow found a solution for this? I'd be willing to switch browsers, or try anything really.
- mos_basik 3y ago
  If I understand what you want correctly, you'd like to be able to hit a chord that opens rofi, type (say) "python typing", hit ENTER and have your system unite you and the browser tab whose title was the best fuzzy match for what you typed. I agree that'd be great. I don't have that solution for you, but I can describe the workaround I've been using in my environment. I use dmenu to switch between i3 workspaces by name [0]. Probably 80% of my workspaces contain a single browser window with multiple tabs (i.e. I'm currently on workspace "hn" which contains one Firefox window with 17 hackernews-or-hn-adjacent tabs). My flow: - With the browser window in my current workspace active - I hit CTL+L (to focus the address bar) - I type "%python typing" (in Firefox, the % prefix makes the query fuzzy match open tab titles across all browser windows) - Select the tab title I want from the results and hit ENTER (surfaces the tab in its window and causes that tab's window to assign itself the X11 "urgent" flag) - Read the 2-letter workspace name that is now highlighted in red at the bottom of my screen (i3 highlighted it because it contains a window with the "urgent" flag) - Hit SUPER+C (to open dmenu with my workspace names) - Type the 2-letter workspace name and hit ENTER (to switch to that workspace, where the tab is surfaced and waiting for me) I do use rofi as my application launcher, though, and you're making me curious if it's possible to exfiltrate tab titles from Firefox. It'd be pretty slick to cut back from two chords+queries to one. 0: Reddit post I made a while back describing my setup, includes a video https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/udd0zg/i3gaps_fluidspaces_i_like_lots_of_named/?ref=share&ref_source=link https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/udd0zg/i3gaps_flu...
anileated 3y ago
I’m sure I’m in the minority, but Stage Manager addressed nearly all of my window management woes on the Mac.
- chrisfinazzo 3y ago
  It's an interesting take, but I'm not sure how this deals with multiple windows if all the demos show a primary, active window and everything else "offstage." I don't need to just see those other windows and their contents, I want to interact with them as well, which SM doesn't seem to do.
  - anileated 3y ago
    I found that cases where I need multiple windows at the same time are actually quite rare in my work. Turned out seeing only the window I work with right now is actually what I needed 90% of the time, so this default behavior is a win. For the remaining 10%, SM makes it easy to combine windows into a set (this is so far the only instance where I use the new “recent applications” widget, I set it to auto-hide so it never distracts me otherwise). Then with cmd+` you can switch between windows in the same set (even if they are of different apps). You can also tile windows in your set with something like Rectangle, etc.—just make sure not to over-craft sets, they are ephemeral after all. The ephemeral nature of window sets used to bother me initially—I wanted to persist them across restarts—but after I realized I really focus on one window 90% of the time, and creating ad-hoc window sets is very quick, I no longer find it an issue.
    - rcarmo 3y ago
      But unlike on the iPad, you can’t switch between sets with a hotkey—Apple really dropped the ball on that one.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - anileated 3y ago
drcongo 3y ago
I'm not a Witch user (found it to Windowsy), but I can highly recommend Moom and NameMangler from the same dev.
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  Big fan of Moom. It adds light window snapping functionality that only reveals itself when I’m explicitly looking for it… no annoying snap-proposal animations or unintended snaps when I drag windows somewhere near a screen edge.
oofbey 3y ago
I’m a big fan of the functionality of witch and have had it installed for years. But honestly I’ve just about given up on it. It keeps breaking. Mac OS of course keeps updating itself and very often those updates cause Witch to stop working. It seems like I used to be able to fix it just by re enabling a permission setting. (Which is fairly obnoxious that I have to do this over and over again - how many times do I have to authorize the same app?) But recently it still doesn’t work after authorizing. And now whenever I hit the magic key combo the security dialog comes up and I can’t fix it. At this point it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle.
Veen 3y ago
I've found rcmd quite useful for window switching. It lets you use the right command key plus another key to switch applications; e.g., right ⌘+s for Safari. It can also display a switcher that shows the letter associations. https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/ https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/
- eddyg 3y ago
  I do something similar with Hammerspoon (which is an amazing app... a little bit of Lua and you can do all sorts of things to the OS!) → https://hammerspoon.org https://hammerspoon.org local hammerspoonHotkeys = { F = { name='Finder' }, P = { name='1Password', alt='1Password 7' }, S = { name='Slack' }, M = { name='Music' }, W = { name='Safari' }, -- 'W' for web ... } for key, obj in pairs(hammerspoonHotkeys) do trigger:bind({}, key, function() openOrHideApp(obj) end) end where trigger is a global hs.hotkey.modal, and openOrHideApp is a function which uses 'name' and 'alt' to switch to the app if it's not active, hides it if it's currently active, or launches it if it's not already running. It also uses hs.alert.show to quickly (just a half-second) display an overlay in the middle of screen that says "Slack" or "Hiding Slack" or "Launching Slack". Because I'm already running Hammerspoon to do things like window management (hotkeys to move and resize windows), control my Streamdeck (without needing to run any other third-party software → https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.streamdeck.html https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.streamdeck.html) and to act as my default browser (so I can use URLDispatcher to do all kinds of "smart" things when URLs are "opened" on my Mac → https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/URLDispatcher.html https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/URLDispatcher.html), etc. it makes sense for me to keep adding functionality with Hammerspoon instead of adding more and more "one off" utilities.
  - eviks 3y ago
    Can you switch between just 2 windows (current and most recent) in hammerspoon while holding (and not releasing) an arbitrary modifier key and tapping some other arbitrary key?
- rcarmo 3y ago
  I do that with Phoenix: https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix
navait 3y ago
I purchased witch several years ago, and my main complaint is that it takes a long time to show all my windows if there's a lot of applications windows, and this did not use to be the case. It's fine if I'm switching between windows in one application, but if I say, want to show all the windows open on my computer, it takes 3+ seconds to display the interface. I discussed it with the Many tricks support, and apparently it's a problem with MacOS
- heleninboodler 3y ago
  Yeah, I used to be a faithful user and I quit because of this. Many Tricks makes good software, but it seems the APIs they use for some of the window information end up getting very slow under certain circumstances, starting on an OS release somewhere around 2017 if I recall. One of my favorite things about Witch is the huge amount of customization you could do with it. Defining multiple switchers with different behaviors and different trigger keys is a nice feature too.
Destiner 3y ago
Cute app, but you can already switch tabs (opt + cmd + arrows) and windows (cmd + `)?
alin23 3y ago
Also check out my rcmd app (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd) for more keyboard centric workflows. It’s definitely not as powerful as Witch for windows/tabs but rcmd’s one-key approach is instant for app switching. Witch has some ingenious features indeed: searching browser/editor/terminal tabs, lingering on an app to show its windows etc. I wish Apple would allow this kind of functionality in App Store apps.
jaimehrubiks 3y ago
The trial expires after triggering Witch 50 times, and I was only beginning to configure it. Trial should be a a day or two for me to choose if I like it or not.
rad_gruchalski 3y ago
Cmd+`, anyone?…
WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago
macOS, the only OS that still empower its devs to do UX usable with a mouse and keyboard Windows/Linux on the other hand, is all about scrolling https://i.imgur.com/LYytae6.png https://i.imgur.com/LYytae6.png Why does this Linux/GTK desktop program looks like an iOS setting menu? Compare to this, all settings available without scrolling: https://manytricks.com/witch/images/4/multiswitch_big.png https://manytricks.com/witch/images/4/multiswitch_big.png
- _qxjp 3y ago
  You may be already aware of this, but macOS Ventura (maybe earlier versions too) changed System Preferences to work more similarly to iOS. Lots of scrolling and nearly all the checkboxes are toggle switches.
  - WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago
    See, you guys don't understand, they only changed the categories (that's understandable because they added plenty, similar to the permission menu), the content menu and controls remain the same, optimized for a trackpad and mouse+KB combo https://support.apple.com/en-bn/guide/mac-help/mh15217/ https://support.apple.com/en-bn/guide/mac-help/mh15217/ Again, compare this with the Gnome/GTK screenshot I shared above.. UX for vertical vs horizontal screens (desktop/laptop vs smartphone), macOS did it right, Gnome did it wrong and Windows is following Gnome's mistake Another example: https://i.imgur.com/atT4Xkg.png https://i.imgur.com/atT4Xkg.png XFCE's file manager vs Gnome's one One optimized for trackpad and mouse/KB combo, the other is looking like a smartphone UX, you constantly need to scroll, and "tap" on huge controls, not optimized for a mouse pointer, and not optimized for keyboard navigation
- nerdponx 3y ago
  GNOME has been trying (unsuccessfully) to copy the Mac look and feel for several years.
kristiandupont 3y ago
I'll just quickly plug Kanel ([link redacted]) which I use to generate Typescript types from a Postgres database. I agree with the author to think migrations-first, though I prefer to write them in SQL to ensure I can utilize all the powerful features that Postgres has to offer. With it, I only get types for the tables and views etc., so any join will be untyped if done client-side. This is still a big win in my opinion, and I much prefer it to normal ORM's.
- muhammadusman 3y ago
  wrong topic / hn thread?
  - kristiandupont 3y ago
    Indeed, but I can't delete it now. Oh well, thanks for the heads up!
user6723 3y ago
After https://SwayWM.org https://SwayWM.org I have told prospective employers that I'm gonna have to use a Linux system when working there and if not it's okay I can work somewhere else. "But our security team can only support Mac and Windows" is a sad joke I hear too often. A couple years ago I turned down an employment package offer that was too good to turn down and said I could be available as a contractor. A big part was I didn't wanna be forced to use a f**ing Mac. Taxes made more sense too so yeah.
- rochak 3y ago
  A hard requirement on what OS we wanna use is not a luxury most of us can afford. Good for you though to be along the few who can.
- anotherhue 3y ago
  I had some success with this, but then came the issues with screensharing on zoom, so they got me in the end.
  - user6723 3y ago
    Zoom is such nasty software I only permit it to be run in a VM.
karaterobot 3y ago
Over the years, Apple has implemented inadequate window management in MacOS in a number of ways, empowering the user by giving them the choice of which method to be frustrated by. For example, the CMD+Tab task switcher seems natural, but it has an issue where you can select an app and it does absolutely nothing, which is both infuriating and incomprehensible. Is it ignoring me because the app is minimized? Did it send it to another desktop? I have no idea! It must be deterministic, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. I am sure "real mac users" get it, and I'm happy for them, but poor benighted souls like me just wonder why their $2500 computer isn't doing what they're telling it to. And whatever that perfectly good reason is, there is an even more perfectly good reason to make it work the way users expect. The Dock has the same issue with letting you click on an app, and then not bringing that app on screen, or telling me why it's ignoring my command. Both of the above patterns work better in Windows, and have worked better for decades, and Apple designers should be a little ashamed of that. Mission Control is probably the most useful method, because it actually brings selected applications on screen (the minimum functionality you would expect). However, it does not support keyboard shortcuts for navigating and selecting an application! How is this possible? It feels like a couple story point ticket to me, yet it remains a problem after a decade. Maybe Apple stubbornly assumes everyone will use a touchpad for everything, despite them selling products without touchpads in them. For money. The other problem with Mission Control is that it should not require your entire screen to switch apps. It feels too form-over-function to me. I tried the newest entry, Stage Manager, for several months. It's like a cross between Mission Control and the Dock. It works well (that is, it does what it's supposed to), except it's missing the ability to change the size of the window thumbnails. It takes up quite a lot of the screen for the value it gives you. Not that being able to select a window and switch to it isn't valuable, just that that's how the Dock should already work, and Dock doesn't take up 10-15% of the screen.
- qxxx 3y ago
  yeah... I have the same problem. I click on the icon in dock and nothing happens. For example, Microsoft Teams.. I need this to open it and contact someone asap, but nothing happens. I need to search for the teams window on all the desktops. Or right click it and select the window, usually this works. But still frustrating. I have been using Mac for 6 months (before Windows and Linux) and Mac OS is sometimes frustrating when trying to do the most simple stuff like bringing a closed app back to front.
barefeg 3y ago
Kind of off topic, but has tiling managers for macOS improved in the last few years? I remember I tried one solution (I can’t remember the name now) which worked OK but it was a little buggy some times. Ever since I just use the standard window manager and try to manage with cmd + tab, cmd + `, and gestures to change spaces.
- CamelRocketFish 3y ago
  https://github.com/kasper/phoenix https://github.com/kasper/phoenix This let’s you have complete control over tiling.
  - rcarmo 3y ago
    I have a config for that with window hints and progressive resizing: https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix
- mfontani 3y ago
  I use skhd and yabai, and it's quite okay. Not as great as i3 under linux, but much better than OSX's defaults for sure.
- howinteresting 3y ago
  I love what yabai is trying to do, but it does really suck for no fault of its own.
  - aldanor 3y ago
    Which parts of it suck in particular? From the videos I've seen so far it's quite useable but requires configuring tons of stuff, possibly disabling SIP, animations are a bit jaggy (mainly due to macos not providing proper non-blocking apis to certain things), no proper master stack layout etc. But all in all looks pretty useable. Planning to switch to it now, because all the other options (like using no tiling manager at all, or Amethyst) seem to suck even more.
blntechie 3y ago
I have been a long time MacOS user and the app/window switching never made any sense to me. Windows and Linux just does it better.
princevegeta89 3y ago
Coming from AltTab, what does Witch do better?
absoluteunit1 3y ago
Hey awesome tool! Myself; I’ve been using the “Windows” feature in Raycast; I highly recommend it. Extremely intuitive. I assign it to a shortcut and then use it to automatically list all the open windows I have and I just search through them to open the one I want
slimebot80 3y ago
The only thing I need from the existing app switcher is for it to ignore minimised apps. That way I can have many apps open, but only care about a few at a time. And keep my focus. Annoying that I have to install ae wizzbang addition to achieve such a simple thing.
darthrupert 3y ago
I love macs for their general feel, but the windowing paradigm is just weird. Their ux team should try i3 for a few months and come up with ab Apple version of that.

150 points by jackdh 3y ago

speedgoose 3y ago

How does it compare to AltTab? https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

danvayn 3y ago
looks like it has some more features than alt tab that are usually covered by other programs. quick open like Alfred, hibernation like Franz/Ferdium.
behnamoh 3y ago
This is what I use and would recommend. the nice thing about it is that you can activate the switcher using keyboard and then hover over any window without even clicking on it. when you release the keyboard shortcut, you switch to that window. it also allows me to hide certain apps from the switcher. like if you have a terminal, you might wanna set up a keyboard shortcut for that and forget about it.
slimebot80 3y ago
I like alt Tab, great project and it's open source and has nice maintainers. Just wish I could turn off the screen recorder feature, as I don't trust any app that does that without exceptional reasons. (In my case, I don't care about thumbnails)

vxNsr 3y ago

Wow this is fantastic. I was gifted a MacBook a few months ago and I am continually surprised to learn how many features I just take for granted in windows. MacOS often feels very similar to Linux in that the core OS is very barebones and needs a ton of extensions to really be useable. The difference being in Linux most of the extensions are OSS while in MacOS they’re each $9.99.

sylens 3y ago
It really just comes down to a different paradigm. I agree that I prefer how Windows handles a lot of things and gives you a lot built-in these days, especially once you add PowerToys
bosie 3y ago
Are they oss though? I am struggling to get something similar to bartender and little snitch on my Linux dev machine but so far, I couldn’t even find alternatives.
- stereopixels 3y ago
  For a Little Snitch alternative on Linux have you tried OpenSnitch? https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
marcellus23 3y ago
This comes down a lot to your personal expectations. As someone who grew up on both Mac and Windows equally, I find its Windows that tends to lack really basic stuff that I take for granted in my day-to-day Mac usage.

I_am_tiberius 3y ago

I switched from KDE to Mac some months back and I'm shocked how many window management features are missing. I'm especially disappointed about the dock. I would love being able to see native window previews when hovering over an application icon. Also I would like to split the dock into the different spaces (virtual desktops). Currently the dock seems not to be considering the fact tha Mac OS supports spaces.

chrisfinazzo 3y ago
I still want macOS to "borrow" (Read: steal) window snapping from Windows. The mere existence of MultiView on Apple TV gives me hope that someone is at least thinking about how to implement such a system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orl5SlmIceA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orl5SlmIceA
- bgm1975 3y ago
  Have you tried Magnet[1] yet? I’ve been using it for years and really love it. TBH, I prefer it over way Windows does it (forcing you to decide wha goes in the “other” side of the screen). [1] https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/ https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/
  - winkywooster 3y ago
    magnet's keybindings for me are the best defaults—they are very intuitive, and don't conflict with emacs. rectangle is an alternative i've tried, but magnet is the one for me.
- psychomugs 3y ago
  BetterSnapTool is the first thing I install on macOS.
- SamuelAdams 3y ago
  Try Rectangle: https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/

gregorias 3y ago

I'm already using [Contexts](https://contexts.co/ https://contexts.co/) for this purpose, and I don't think I need anything else.

DavideNL 3y ago
I also use Contexts, and prefer it over AltTab and others…
- TMWNN 3y ago
  I used AltTab first, then switched to Contexts because AltTab imposed a serious performance penalty on my older Intel Mac. Did you also experience that?
  - DavideNL 3y ago
    No, i'm using an M1. But indeed, i did notice AltTab is sluggish...
    - TMWNN 3y ago
      After moving from AltTab to Contexts, I also switched to Apple Silicon. While satisfied with Contexts, I wondered whether Apple Silicon would have obviated the performance difference. Thanks for answering that question.
keybits 3y ago
Contexts is excellent. There's a free trial. Keyboard FTW! I configure it to be a minimal cmd-tab switcher that shows all windows for each app. I disable the sidebar and other unnecessary stuff.
devbent 3y ago
Contexts is amazing, being able to search window titles is how I do almost all my navigation between apps now days, especially when I have code editors open to multiple (4+) different projects. I have an equivalent installed on Windows (I forget its name) and it is likewise just as amazingly useful.

nerdjon 3y ago

Whenever I see tools like this for Mac I can't help but wonder if I am seriously missing something. Unlike when I use Windows, I just don't use command (alt) tab on Mac. I rely almost entirely on gestures on my trackpad (three fingers swipe up to see all my windows that are not minimized). With the added benefit of that allowing me to drag those windows to other screens/desktops right from that UI. Is there some power user advantage I am missing out on here or is this sort of making Mac work more like Windows? On Windows I use alt tab all the time just because... I find its windows management sucks compared to Mac.

dantehemerson 3y ago
I found it useful because I try to avoid using mouse as much as possible.
dieulot 3y ago
Alt+Tab lets you switch to a previous window instantly. MacOS’s UI sluggishness is jarring when you’re a power user from another platform.
- behnamoh 3y ago
  I wish we could remove the animation between spaces on macos. there’s always a delay before you get to use the space you switched to.
- yboris 3y ago
  Unsure if you mean AltTab - https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ -- it's my favorite
  - brimstedt 3y ago
    AltTab and Rectangle is what makes Mac DE usable.
    - ostenning 3y ago

spsesk117 3y ago

Witch looks awesome, and I think has a killer feature I've been looking for for a while on linux (slightly off topic). I use rofi on linux to surface a dialog that allows me to execute programs, surface an X window, or change to a different tmux session. Rofi natively supports the first two, the tmux pane/session switcher being a little 10 line extension I wrote in bash. I love rofi and the ability to do this, but there is a 'white whale' in this workflow setup that I have not been able to crack: A rofi dialog that displays and surfaces browser tabs. I have fought with chromium dev mode/flags/options on several occasions trying to plumb together something like this, but cannot for the life of me figure it out; apparently chromium does not really want you to get a list of tabs from outside the browser. Has anyone with a similar workflow found a solution for this? I'd be willing to switch browsers, or try anything really.

mos_basik 3y ago
If I understand what you want correctly, you'd like to be able to hit a chord that opens rofi, type (say) "python typing", hit ENTER and have your system unite you and the browser tab whose title was the best fuzzy match for what you typed. I agree that'd be great. I don't have that solution for you, but I can describe the workaround I've been using in my environment. I use dmenu to switch between i3 workspaces by name [0]. Probably 80% of my workspaces contain a single browser window with multiple tabs (i.e. I'm currently on workspace "hn" which contains one Firefox window with 17 hackernews-or-hn-adjacent tabs). My flow: - With the browser window in my current workspace active - I hit CTL+L (to focus the address bar) - I type "%python typing" (in Firefox, the % prefix makes the query fuzzy match open tab titles across all browser windows) - Select the tab title I want from the results and hit ENTER (surfaces the tab in its window and causes that tab's window to assign itself the X11 "urgent" flag) - Read the 2-letter workspace name that is now highlighted in red at the bottom of my screen (i3 highlighted it because it contains a window with the "urgent" flag) - Hit SUPER+C (to open dmenu with my workspace names) - Type the 2-letter workspace name and hit ENTER (to switch to that workspace, where the tab is surfaced and waiting for me) I do use rofi as my application launcher, though, and you're making me curious if it's possible to exfiltrate tab titles from Firefox. It'd be pretty slick to cut back from two chords+queries to one. 0: Reddit post I made a while back describing my setup, includes a video https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/udd0zg/i3gaps_fluidspaces_i_like_lots_of_named/?ref=share&ref_source=link https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/udd0zg/i3gaps_flu...

anileated 3y ago

I’m sure I’m in the minority, but Stage Manager addressed nearly all of my window management woes on the Mac.

chrisfinazzo 3y ago
It's an interesting take, but I'm not sure how this deals with multiple windows if all the demos show a primary, active window and everything else "offstage." I don't need to just see those other windows and their contents, I want to interact with them as well, which SM doesn't seem to do.
- anileated 3y ago
  I found that cases where I need multiple windows at the same time are actually quite rare in my work. Turned out seeing only the window I work with right now is actually what I needed 90% of the time, so this default behavior is a win. For the remaining 10%, SM makes it easy to combine windows into a set (this is so far the only instance where I use the new “recent applications” widget, I set it to auto-hide so it never distracts me otherwise). Then with cmd+` you can switch between windows in the same set (even if they are of different apps). You can also tile windows in your set with something like Rectangle, etc.—just make sure not to over-craft sets, they are ephemeral after all. The ephemeral nature of window sets used to bother me initially—I wanted to persist them across restarts—but after I realized I really focus on one window 90% of the time, and creating ad-hoc window sets is very quick, I no longer find it an issue.
  - rcarmo 3y ago
    But unlike on the iPad, you can’t switch between sets with a hotkey—Apple really dropped the ball on that one.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - anileated 3y ago

drcongo 3y ago

I'm not a Witch user (found it to Windowsy), but I can highly recommend Moom and NameMangler from the same dev.

kitsunesoba 3y ago
Big fan of Moom. It adds light window snapping functionality that only reveals itself when I’m explicitly looking for it… no annoying snap-proposal animations or unintended snaps when I drag windows somewhere near a screen edge.

oofbey 3y ago

I’m a big fan of the functionality of witch and have had it installed for years. But honestly I’ve just about given up on it. It keeps breaking. Mac OS of course keeps updating itself and very often those updates cause Witch to stop working. It seems like I used to be able to fix it just by re enabling a permission setting. (Which is fairly obnoxious that I have to do this over and over again - how many times do I have to authorize the same app?) But recently it still doesn’t work after authorizing. And now whenever I hit the magic key combo the security dialog comes up and I can’t fix it. At this point it just doesn’t seem worth the hassle.

Veen 3y ago

I've found rcmd quite useful for window switching. It lets you use the right command key plus another key to switch applications; e.g., right ⌘+s for Safari. It can also display a switcher that shows the letter associations. https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/ https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd/

eddyg 3y ago
I do something similar with Hammerspoon (which is an amazing app... a little bit of Lua and you can do all sorts of things to the OS!) → https://hammerspoon.org https://hammerspoon.org local hammerspoonHotkeys = { F = { name='Finder' }, P = { name='1Password', alt='1Password 7' }, S = { name='Slack' }, M = { name='Music' }, W = { name='Safari' }, -- 'W' for web ... } for key, obj in pairs(hammerspoonHotkeys) do trigger:bind({}, key, function() openOrHideApp(obj) end) end where trigger is a global hs.hotkey.modal, and openOrHideApp is a function which uses 'name' and 'alt' to switch to the app if it's not active, hides it if it's currently active, or launches it if it's not already running. It also uses hs.alert.show to quickly (just a half-second) display an overlay in the middle of screen that says "Slack" or "Hiding Slack" or "Launching Slack". Because I'm already running Hammerspoon to do things like window management (hotkeys to move and resize windows), control my Streamdeck (without needing to run any other third-party software → https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.streamdeck.html https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.streamdeck.html) and to act as my default browser (so I can use URLDispatcher to do all kinds of "smart" things when URLs are "opened" on my Mac → https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/URLDispatcher.html https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/URLDispatcher.html), etc. it makes sense for me to keep adding functionality with Hammerspoon instead of adding more and more "one off" utilities.
- eviks 3y ago
  Can you switch between just 2 windows (current and most recent) in hammerspoon while holding (and not releasing) an arbitrary modifier key and tapping some other arbitrary key?
rcarmo 3y ago
I do that with Phoenix: https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix

navait 3y ago

I purchased witch several years ago, and my main complaint is that it takes a long time to show all my windows if there's a lot of applications windows, and this did not use to be the case. It's fine if I'm switching between windows in one application, but if I say, want to show all the windows open on my computer, it takes 3+ seconds to display the interface. I discussed it with the Many tricks support, and apparently it's a problem with MacOS

heleninboodler 3y ago
Yeah, I used to be a faithful user and I quit because of this. Many Tricks makes good software, but it seems the APIs they use for some of the window information end up getting very slow under certain circumstances, starting on an OS release somewhere around 2017 if I recall. One of my favorite things about Witch is the huge amount of customization you could do with it. Defining multiple switchers with different behaviors and different trigger keys is a nice feature too.

Destiner 3y ago

Cute app, but you can already switch tabs (opt + cmd + arrows) and windows (cmd + `)?

alin23 3y ago

Also check out my rcmd app (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd) for more keyboard centric workflows. It’s definitely not as powerful as Witch for windows/tabs but rcmd’s one-key approach is instant for app switching. Witch has some ingenious features indeed: searching browser/editor/terminal tabs, lingering on an app to show its windows etc. I wish Apple would allow this kind of functionality in App Store apps.

jaimehrubiks 3y ago

The trial expires after triggering Witch 50 times, and I was only beginning to configure it. Trial should be a a day or two for me to choose if I like it or not.

rad_gruchalski 3y ago

Cmd+`, anyone?…

WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago

macOS, the only OS that still empower its devs to do UX usable with a mouse and keyboard Windows/Linux on the other hand, is all about scrolling https://i.imgur.com/LYytae6.png https://i.imgur.com/LYytae6.png Why does this Linux/GTK desktop program looks like an iOS setting menu? Compare to this, all settings available without scrolling: https://manytricks.com/witch/images/4/multiswitch_big.png https://manytricks.com/witch/images/4/multiswitch_big.png

_qxjp 3y ago
You may be already aware of this, but macOS Ventura (maybe earlier versions too) changed System Preferences to work more similarly to iOS. Lots of scrolling and nearly all the checkboxes are toggle switches.
- WhereIsTheTruth 3y ago
  See, you guys don't understand, they only changed the categories (that's understandable because they added plenty, similar to the permission menu), the content menu and controls remain the same, optimized for a trackpad and mouse+KB combo https://support.apple.com/en-bn/guide/mac-help/mh15217/ https://support.apple.com/en-bn/guide/mac-help/mh15217/ Again, compare this with the Gnome/GTK screenshot I shared above.. UX for vertical vs horizontal screens (desktop/laptop vs smartphone), macOS did it right, Gnome did it wrong and Windows is following Gnome's mistake Another example: https://i.imgur.com/atT4Xkg.png https://i.imgur.com/atT4Xkg.png XFCE's file manager vs Gnome's one One optimized for trackpad and mouse/KB combo, the other is looking like a smartphone UX, you constantly need to scroll, and "tap" on huge controls, not optimized for a mouse pointer, and not optimized for keyboard navigation
nerdponx 3y ago
GNOME has been trying (unsuccessfully) to copy the Mac look and feel for several years.

kristiandupont 3y ago

I'll just quickly plug Kanel ([link redacted]) which I use to generate Typescript types from a Postgres database. I agree with the author to think migrations-first, though I prefer to write them in SQL to ensure I can utilize all the powerful features that Postgres has to offer. With it, I only get types for the tables and views etc., so any join will be untyped if done client-side. This is still a big win in my opinion, and I much prefer it to normal ORM's.

muhammadusman 3y ago
wrong topic / hn thread?
- kristiandupont 3y ago
  Indeed, but I can't delete it now. Oh well, thanks for the heads up!

user6723 3y ago

After https://SwayWM.org https://SwayWM.org I have told prospective employers that I'm gonna have to use a Linux system when working there and if not it's okay I can work somewhere else. "But our security team can only support Mac and Windows" is a sad joke I hear too often. A couple years ago I turned down an employment package offer that was too good to turn down and said I could be available as a contractor. A big part was I didn't wanna be forced to use a f**ing Mac. Taxes made more sense too so yeah.

rochak 3y ago
A hard requirement on what OS we wanna use is not a luxury most of us can afford. Good for you though to be along the few who can.
anotherhue 3y ago
I had some success with this, but then came the issues with screensharing on zoom, so they got me in the end.
- user6723 3y ago
  Zoom is such nasty software I only permit it to be run in a VM.

karaterobot 3y ago

Over the years, Apple has implemented inadequate window management in MacOS in a number of ways, empowering the user by giving them the choice of which method to be frustrated by. For example, the CMD+Tab task switcher seems natural, but it has an issue where you can select an app and it does absolutely nothing, which is both infuriating and incomprehensible. Is it ignoring me because the app is minimized? Did it send it to another desktop? I have no idea! It must be deterministic, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. I am sure "real mac users" get it, and I'm happy for them, but poor benighted souls like me just wonder why their $2500 computer isn't doing what they're telling it to. And whatever that perfectly good reason is, there is an even more perfectly good reason to make it work the way users expect. The Dock has the same issue with letting you click on an app, and then not bringing that app on screen, or telling me why it's ignoring my command. Both of the above patterns work better in Windows, and have worked better for decades, and Apple designers should be a little ashamed of that. Mission Control is probably the most useful method, because it actually brings selected applications on screen (the minimum functionality you would expect). However, it does not support keyboard shortcuts for navigating and selecting an application! How is this possible? It feels like a couple story point ticket to me, yet it remains a problem after a decade. Maybe Apple stubbornly assumes everyone will use a touchpad for everything, despite them selling products without touchpads in them. For money. The other problem with Mission Control is that it should not require your entire screen to switch apps. It feels too form-over-function to me. I tried the newest entry, Stage Manager, for several months. It's like a cross between Mission Control and the Dock. It works well (that is, it does what it's supposed to), except it's missing the ability to change the size of the window thumbnails. It takes up quite a lot of the screen for the value it gives you. Not that being able to select a window and switch to it isn't valuable, just that that's how the Dock should already work, and Dock doesn't take up 10-15% of the screen.

qxxx 3y ago
yeah... I have the same problem. I click on the icon in dock and nothing happens. For example, Microsoft Teams.. I need this to open it and contact someone asap, but nothing happens. I need to search for the teams window on all the desktops. Or right click it and select the window, usually this works. But still frustrating. I have been using Mac for 6 months (before Windows and Linux) and Mac OS is sometimes frustrating when trying to do the most simple stuff like bringing a closed app back to front.

barefeg 3y ago

Kind of off topic, but has tiling managers for macOS improved in the last few years? I remember I tried one solution (I can’t remember the name now) which worked OK but it was a little buggy some times. Ever since I just use the standard window manager and try to manage with cmd + tab, cmd + `, and gestures to change spaces.

CamelRocketFish 3y ago
https://github.com/kasper/phoenix https://github.com/kasper/phoenix This let’s you have complete control over tiling.
- rcarmo 3y ago
  I have a config for that with window hints and progressive resizing: https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix https://taoofmac.com/space/apps/phoenix
mfontani 3y ago
I use skhd and yabai, and it's quite okay. Not as great as i3 under linux, but much better than OSX's defaults for sure.
howinteresting 3y ago
I love what yabai is trying to do, but it does really suck for no fault of its own.
- aldanor 3y ago
  Which parts of it suck in particular? From the videos I've seen so far it's quite useable but requires configuring tons of stuff, possibly disabling SIP, animations are a bit jaggy (mainly due to macos not providing proper non-blocking apis to certain things), no proper master stack layout etc. But all in all looks pretty useable. Planning to switch to it now, because all the other options (like using no tiling manager at all, or Amethyst) seem to suck even more.

blntechie 3y ago

I have been a long time MacOS user and the app/window switching never made any sense to me. Windows and Linux just does it better.

princevegeta89 3y ago

Coming from AltTab, what does Witch do better?

absoluteunit1 3y ago

Hey awesome tool! Myself; I’ve been using the “Windows” feature in Raycast; I highly recommend it. Extremely intuitive. I assign it to a shortcut and then use it to automatically list all the open windows I have and I just search through them to open the one I want

slimebot80 3y ago

The only thing I need from the existing app switcher is for it to ignore minimised apps. That way I can have many apps open, but only care about a few at a time. And keep my focus. Annoying that I have to install ae wizzbang addition to achieve such a simple thing.

darthrupert 3y ago

I love macs for their general feel, but the windowing paradigm is just weird. Their ux team should try i3 for a few months and come up with ab Apple version of that.