11 ms·

Amethyst – A tiling window manager for OS X

246 points by xj9 12y ago

anoxic 12y ago
Use this every day. Works great.
rcknight 12y ago
Weird, I was literally just googling for this and found Amethyst. Seems nice. I've noticed it gets a little slow to rearrange things sometimes with lots of windows but the functionality I need is all there. Works great with my three screen setup too, which many tools like this don't.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
Vecrios 12y ago
What's the benefit of using this vs. WMs like SizeUp? I'm asking this question because I'm quite comfortable with SizeUp and don't understand if learning how to use a WM is worth it.
- rcknight 12y ago
  Seems to me that there are 2 big benefits over sizeup (though i'm basing this entirely on their website, i've not used it) 1 - With sizeup you have to manually move your apps around. With this, new windows are automatically tiled (and you can then move things around afterwards with the keyboard shortcuts) 2 - This seems like it supports more complex layouts (with various layouts built in)
  - ianyh 12y ago
    That is generally correct. I wrote a longer comment about this but SizeUp is about manually managing windows and Amethyst is about letting software manage windows for you. It's generally a matter of personal preference which you prefer.
    - Vecrios 12y ago
      In case anyone looking for the referenced comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8769044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8769044
bombtrack 12y ago
I posted this yesterday in the thread about the Rust-written window manager, but it's relevant here as well. There are plenty of apps that provide varying levels of window-manager functionality to OS X. I would try a couple out and see which feels right to you. I have tried most of them, and personally prefer Moom. http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://mizage.com/divvy/ http://mizage.com/divvy/ http://ianyh.com/amethyst/ http://ianyh.com/amethyst/ http://spectacleapp.com/ http://spectacleapp.com/ https://github.com/fjolnir/xnomad https://github.com/fjolnir/xnomad https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m.. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m.... https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir
- pmoriarty 12y ago
  Is Moom any better than Spectacle?
  - tekknolagi 12y ago
    I don't think so. I went from Moom to Spectacle something like a year ago and haven't looked back.
- bluetidepro 12y ago
  Moom is by far the best I have tried, also. I really love that app.
- dilap 12y ago
  FWIW, I'm a very happy user of bettersnaptool
- Carrok 12y ago
  For another option, I prefer Window Tidy. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/window-tidy/id456609775 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/window-tidy/id456609775
- bnycum 12y ago
  Minus Mjolnir, I've tried the rest and still prefer Slate[1] but it hasn't been updated since Feb 2013. Actually I had never heard of Mjolnir before now. I like Slate's ability to define a config file that is just a little more powerful than the competition, plus it's easy to sync across machines. I haven't updated to Yosemite, but Slate works wonderfully on Mavericks. [1]: https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate
salas106 12y ago
Use it also. Cool tiling manager.
RussianCow 12y ago
I really just want a window manager that allows windows to snap to each other and the edges of the screen when resizing or moving them. Does something like that exist? I don't care for the pre-defined layouts or hotkeys, I just want to be able to visually drag/resize my windows and have them take up the most optimal amount of space.
- cstuder 12y ago
  I personally use Cinch, which is good enough for me: Maximise if I drag a window to the top, left/right half if I drag a window to the side. http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/ So far I've never seen a tool which glued one window to the other though.
  - RussianCow 12y ago
    Yeah, that's about as far as I've gotten as well. Snapping to other windows seems like the natural next step for me--it's weird that not a single app has taken that approach, though.
- rMBP 12y ago
  Google led me to BetterSnapTool: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=12 https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m...
  - RussianCow 12y ago
    It might very well support the behavior that I'm looking for (the trial doesn't seem to work so I can't tell for sure), but I don't see anything in the description about snapping to other windows. It sounds like you set some pre-defined snapping sizes/areas, and those are used. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
    - heed 12y ago
      BetterTouchTool has the same functionality as the snap tool baked in, and it's free! (In preferences look at "Action Settings" in the advanced tab). http://www.bettertouchtool.net/ http://www.bettertouchtool.net/
platz 12y ago
I like tiling managers, but dislike having predefined layouts. Being able to split any tile horizontally or vertically arbitrarily many times is the way to go (i.e. i3-style). Would like to see tiling wm authors to consider this option when starting new projects.
- ianyh 12y ago
  It's on the list of things I want to do. I should have used a tree structure off the bat and done something like binary space partitioning.
axotty 12y ago
Am I the only weirdo who just uses multiple workspaces with ctrl-arrow and cmd-tab like a mad man? I genuinely enjoy it, especially with a second monitor. I, maybe, have one or two apps sharing a single workspace. Most apps are in full screen.
- Cushman 12y ago
  I do this with trackpad swipes and a grid of desktops (using TotalSpaces2 currently). Each app or task has its "place". I've tried other stuff, but the spatial metaphor really works for me.
- pmoriarty 12y ago
  This is pretty much how I use my favorite tiling window manager on Linux: i3.[1] There are occasions when tiling features come in handy, however (such as when you want to see more than one window at the same time). [1] - http://i3wm.org/ http://i3wm.org/
- chipotle_coyote 12y ago
  You are not. :) I don't usually use full screen mode for apps when my Macbook Pro is docked, but when I'm just using the laptop screen it's ended up being surprisingly useful. (At least I was surprised.) Docked I'm usually only using two virtual desktops, sometimes three. Mission Control gets slagged on more than it deserves -- it's fast and functional. On point for the actual link to Amethyst: I use Moom for window resizing/control from the keyboard, but in practice the mouse is actually pretty darn efficient when what I want is to make a window this big and put it over there.
pmoriarty 12y ago
Does anyone know whether there's any chance i3 could be ported to OS X's native windowing system (whatever it's called) ?
- thinkmassive 12y ago
  You can probably run i3 in X11, although non-X11 apps won't work with it. Your best bet is to run i3 in a full-screen VM. I researched this myself a few months back, since i3 was the biggest thing I missed when I had to switch to OS X (new company, new computer). Eventually I gave up and settled on Amethyst. It's not bad once you set up the keyboard shortcuts to your liking. The main things I miss are the tree structure for window organization, and window borders that stick together when resized. I created some bounties on bountysource for features I'd like to see in this project. Hopefully other people want them enough to contribute as well, and ianyh will get a nice return on his contributions.
pmoriarty 12y ago
Wow. This has focus follows mouse! (though they call it "mouse-follows-focus", for some reason) I've been told focus follows mouse was impossible on OS X.
- TkTech 12y ago
  Who told you that? You could do it with just applescript if you wanted to, just need to enable accessibility so you can control windows and the mouse.
  - pmoriarty 12y ago
    I've seen this "limitation" mentioned in various online forums, such as the following. "Mac OS X interface and ergonomy is (as said by apple) not 'compatible' with the focus-follow mouse mode. Why ? Because a single application interface is split into lots of different elements. For exemple, you use an application like photoshop or word, you'll have different panels floating around the main window. With sloppy focus mode enabled, with an application below, you would'nt be able to reach them. And how should they consider the desktop, which is, finally, just a 'root' window managed by the Finder..."[1] Here are some more. "Sadly, it seems that for the time being there is no good way to do this in OS X."[2] "The fundamental problem with sloppy focus on the Mac is that the menu bar is always associated with the currently focused application; if you had sloppy focus, accessing the menu bar for a specific application would be supremely difficult."[2] [1] - http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000149.html#comment-14550 http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000149.html#comment-... [2] - http://superuser.com/questions/27306/focus-follows-mouse-or-sloppy-focus-on-mac-os-x http://superuser.com/questions/27306/focus-follows-mouse-or-...
    - jre 12y ago
      Regarding the first argument (apps with multiple panels), the author should try Linux. Gimp (and others) works fine on Linux with sloppy focus. The global menu bar is indeed a problem, but it can be alleviated by adding a small delay before changing focus (so fast mouse movements to reach the menu won't change focus).
shawn-furyan 12y ago
I've been using Amethyst as my WM for a couple months now, and have used XMonad for significant stretches in the past. Amethyst tries to bring the XMonad experience to OSX. I think it does an admirable job, but there are some distinctions. Amethyst is simpler to set up, and is more forgiving to newcomers. It has a GUI for configuration, and an easily accessible list of commands. It also works on top of OSX's WM, so it's not so enormous a departure, especially compared to XMonad's fairly extreme dismissal of the mouse. On the down side, XMonad really outshines Amethyst when it comes to performance. Amethyst is downright sluggish, where I've always found XMonad to be very responsive. Still, it's overall a true enough translation, and the sluggishness rarely actually hinders productivity. Overally, I think Amethyst is a capable daily driver, and a great intro to tiled window managers.
- ics 12y ago
  It is also very buggy around fullscreen apps, enough so that I stopped using it after a week. Slate et al worked much better for me (still slower than TWMs on linux) but forced or at least tempted more setup which is definitely the benefit of Amethyst.
  - ianyh 12y ago
    It is super buggy for fullscreen apps. Unfortunately, I have this superpower (or curse) of not being able to reproduce bugs. Every time I get near a coworker's computer, whatever they were talking to me about starts working. There's a long thread on github about this (https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/254 https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/254). I'd love to know more about your set up. I've been trying for weeks to make it work for people, but Apple's APIs for this are kind of crap. And by crap I mean non-existent. I've started using private APIs to do things like figuring out whether or not the current desktop is a fullscreen app.
    - ics 12y ago
      I came across that issue and might contribute info in the way of reproducing bugs, but my setup is pretty simple: near fresh Yosemite install, one Chrome window, one Finder window, and two Emacs.app frames (one fullscreen).
ianyh 12y ago
I'm the Amethyst developer. I'm happy to answer any questions people have. I'm hopping on a cross-country plane flight in about an hour, but I have a layover. I'll try get back to people as soon as I can.
- hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
  Cool app, thank you. Trying it out. Do you know if it's possible to have apps start in fullscreen (the real one, as in Yosemite) by default? I would like that as default and only tile on some spaces.
  - ianyh 12y ago
    That is an interesting idea. I'm not actually sure whether or not it's possible. Unfortunately I'm on a plane and my phone won't let me make github issues. I'll add one to look into when I land.
- Semiapies 12y ago
  Just wanted to say that I liked your donation section. You don't often see one where someone says Here are some things that you'd might rather donate to than my project.
- nuclear_eclipse 12y ago
  Is there a way to set up custom layouts? Eg, I'd love to have a variant of tall/wide-tall that puts the main area on the right side of the display, rather than the left.
  - Karunamon 12y ago
    +1 for this question. I've got a dual head box hooked up to my machine, and I'd do just about anything for a window management solution that would let me divide up this 3840x1080 "virtual" display into two equal displays. Mostly so dialogs stop appearing in the split between displays.
  - ianyh 12y ago
0942v8653 12y ago
I use a window manager, but really only to have a hotkey that fullscreens a window (three, actually: one for current, one for left and one for right display). With 2 displays, I find that I have all I need with just an editor window and a documentation browser window. I guess I have smaller displays than most people because if I resize a window (browser windows mostly) beyond about 2/3 its layout gets messed up or a horizontal scrollbar appears.
dylanz 12y ago
First off, thank you ianyh!! Tiling window managers are a huge productivity tool, and when I see people manually resizing windows, it's painful to watch. I'm on OSX now, but used XMonad extensively when I was on a *n?x distro. At the moment, I'm using Spectacle for OSX. http://spectacleapp.com/ http://spectacleapp.com/. Are there reasons I should use Amethyst instead? I'd love to see a feature matrix or something in you FAQ about the other options, and what Amethyst brings to the table.
- ianyh 12y ago
  A feature matrix isn't a bad idea (and I opened an issue to track https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/267 https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/267), but it's kind of hard to compare as they are such different pieces of software. Spectacle is manual window management and Amethyst is tiling window management. Manual window management generally gives you better control and generally less overhead in terms of complexity. So it works well in the case of "I want to be able to move this window to the upper half of the screen", "I want to be able to make this window take up the entire screen", etc. You have to trade simplicity to get flexibility, though. What if I want to be able to move window to the upper right hand quarter of the screen? Or what if I want my screen divided into a grid of 3x4 and I want a window in the [0][1] position? You can accomplish all of those things, but you have to specify how to go about it, thus adding complexity. Slate, for example, puts that complexity upfront in writing a config file. Divvy, for example, puts that complexity at runtime. Tiling window management gives you a more hands off approach. So things like "I want all of my windows to be laid out in this orientation, but I don't want to move them myself", "I want all of my windows to be visible at any given time", etc. You don't take actions to lay windows out, you just define algorithms for how they should be laid out and let the software sort them out. You have to trade simplicity to get control, though. Defining those algorithms can be complicated if you're not doing something really straightforward, and if you're not doing something straightforward it can sometimes be non-trivial to grok what's actually going on. Or you end up doing a lot of runtime massaging to get things working the way you want. To each their own, though. I prefer tiling window management, I have coworkers who prefer manual window management. They're just different tools.
DevMonkey 12y ago
For Windows I just stumbled across MaxTo (http://maxto.net/ http://maxto.net/) I've been using it for a couple of days and I'm really impressed.
- chriswarbo 12y ago
  In a previous life I used http://code.google.com/p/python-windows-tiler/ http://code.google.com/p/python-windows-tiler/ for Windows. It's not the most stable application though.
hugg 12y ago
Looks really weird with the window shadows though.
- ianyh 12y ago
  You can theoretically turn off window shadows. https://github.com/puffnfresh/toggle-osx-shadows https://github.com/puffnfresh/toggle-osx-shadows
- jeromenerf 12y ago
  Yep, I like adding some space between windows. I proposed something like that for spectale some weeks ago. Got refused. https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/issues/290 https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/issues/290 I mostly use apps in fullscreen and sometimes need to see 3 /3 apps at the same time, then switch to fullscreen, then back to tiled mode again... Small aesthetic gaps around windows may not be such a waste of screen estate.
  - ianyh 12y ago
    Window spacing is actually in the works for Amethyst. It just has some issues because some windows just don't size exactly. Terminal windows, for example, only size in increments of cursor size, so you're almost always a bit smaller or a bit larger than you want, which makes the spacing in between windows look weird.
    - jeromenerf 12y ago
      I noticed that with or without my spectacle patch. I tend to prefer uneven gaps than no gaps though, considering how unpleasant overlapping drop shadows looks like.
nchuhoai 12y ago
I've used BetterTouchTool's tiling functionality for the most part, but I just got a 4K monitor and most granular most tiling managers can do is quarters. I wish there was an out-of-the-box solution that allows me to just tile my space more granularly
gngrwzrd 12y ago
it's ok, I prefer to be able to set windows where I want them and assign keyboard shortcuts. I was the original author of Breeze, now autumn apps has it available - http://autumnapps.com/breeze/index.html http://autumnapps.com/breeze/index.html
oDot 12y ago
Seeing this (and others like it), what's the benefit of having a tiling-only WM over a floating WM with tiling capabilities?
- ianyh 12y ago
  Well, Amethyst can float windows so I wouldn't call it a tiling-only WM, but there's a lot of reasons I prefer it over floating window managers. I'm really lazy and want software to deal with my windows for me. I used floating window managers for a long time and found that I spent a lot of my time arranging windows in the same patterns. I also found that with floating window managers were just too limited for things I wanted to do on a daily basis. Two come to mind off hand. I want to be able to make a window temporarily bigger, but keeping the other windows on the screen and sized appropriately and I want to be able to easily switch which window is the "primary window." When I'm doing web development without external screens I find it very help to have an editor and a browser window open at the same time. One of them takes up about 80% of the screen and the other takes up about 20% of the screen, but I switch which is which pretty often. Make the editor take up most of the screen, make some changes loosely referencing things in the browser window, make the browser window take up most of the screen and see effects loosely referencing the code in the editor. And sometimes I've also got a Hulu or Netflix window open taking 20% of the width and 50% of the height. The complexity of making that work with a floating window manager is just too much compared to how easy it is for a tiling window manager. I also just like being able to see everything on my screen at the same time.
cheshire137 12y ago
Divvy is sufficient for me.
robbles 12y ago
As someone who's relatively new to tiling window managers (I've used manual ones like Divvy and Moom quite a bit though): is this approach only really effective with large monitors? I've given Amethyst and other WMs a shot in the past and been instantly annoyed when they automatically tucked away windows into unusably small configurations. Is this part of the learning curve and addressed by proper configuration, or should be avoiding this for use on small screens? e.g. a MB Air 13"
lingodayz 12y ago
I wish there was a window manager such as this but where you could put the application into full screen mode. So have two programs running in full screen mode side by side. Sublime and others (iterm) look so much less distracting without their window frames.
soundjack 12y ago
No one mentioned this one yet, it's not free but works pretty well with Windows 7-like snapping too: http://www.nulana.com/flexiglass/ http://www.nulana.com/flexiglass/

246 points by xj9 12y ago

Use this every day. Works great.

Weird, I was literally just googling for this and found Amethyst. Seems nice. I've noticed it gets a little slow to rearrange things sometimes with lots of windows but the functionality I need is all there. Works great with my three screen setup too, which many tools like this don't.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

Vecrios 12y ago

What's the benefit of using this vs. WMs like SizeUp? I'm asking this question because I'm quite comfortable with SizeUp and don't understand if learning how to use a WM is worth it.

rcknight 12y ago
Seems to me that there are 2 big benefits over sizeup (though i'm basing this entirely on their website, i've not used it) 1 - With sizeup you have to manually move your apps around. With this, new windows are automatically tiled (and you can then move things around afterwards with the keyboard shortcuts) 2 - This seems like it supports more complex layouts (with various layouts built in)
- ianyh 12y ago
  That is generally correct. I wrote a longer comment about this but SizeUp is about manually managing windows and Amethyst is about letting software manage windows for you. It's generally a matter of personal preference which you prefer.
  - Vecrios 12y ago
    In case anyone looking for the referenced comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8769044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8769044

bombtrack 12y ago

I posted this yesterday in the thread about the Rust-written window manager, but it's relevant here as well. There are plenty of apps that provide varying levels of window-manager functionality to OS X. I would try a couple out and see which feels right to you. I have tried most of them, and personally prefer Moom. http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://mizage.com/divvy/ http://mizage.com/divvy/ http://ianyh.com/amethyst/ http://ianyh.com/amethyst/ http://spectacleapp.com/ http://spectacleapp.com/ https://github.com/fjolnir/xnomad https://github.com/fjolnir/xnomad https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m.. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m.... https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir

pmoriarty 12y ago
Is Moom any better than Spectacle?
- tekknolagi 12y ago
  I don't think so. I went from Moom to Spectacle something like a year ago and haven't looked back.
bluetidepro 12y ago
Moom is by far the best I have tried, also. I really love that app.
dilap 12y ago
FWIW, I'm a very happy user of bettersnaptool
Carrok 12y ago
For another option, I prefer Window Tidy. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/window-tidy/id456609775 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/window-tidy/id456609775
bnycum 12y ago
Minus Mjolnir, I've tried the rest and still prefer Slate[1] but it hasn't been updated since Feb 2013. Actually I had never heard of Mjolnir before now. I like Slate's ability to define a config file that is just a little more powerful than the competition, plus it's easy to sync across machines. I haven't updated to Yosemite, but Slate works wonderfully on Mavericks. [1]: https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate

salas106 12y ago

Use it also. Cool tiling manager.

RussianCow 12y ago

I really just want a window manager that allows windows to snap to each other and the edges of the screen when resizing or moving them. Does something like that exist? I don't care for the pre-defined layouts or hotkeys, I just want to be able to visually drag/resize my windows and have them take up the most optimal amount of space.

cstuder 12y ago
I personally use Cinch, which is good enough for me: Maximise if I drag a window to the top, left/right half if I drag a window to the side. http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/ So far I've never seen a tool which glued one window to the other though.
- RussianCow 12y ago
  Yeah, that's about as far as I've gotten as well. Snapping to other windows seems like the natural next step for me--it's weird that not a single app has taken that approach, though.
rMBP 12y ago
Google led me to BetterSnapTool: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=12 https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m...
- RussianCow 12y ago
  It might very well support the behavior that I'm looking for (the trial doesn't seem to work so I can't tell for sure), but I don't see anything in the description about snapping to other windows. It sounds like you set some pre-defined snapping sizes/areas, and those are used. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
  - heed 12y ago
    BetterTouchTool has the same functionality as the snap tool baked in, and it's free! (In preferences look at "Action Settings" in the advanced tab). http://www.bettertouchtool.net/ http://www.bettertouchtool.net/

platz 12y ago

I like tiling managers, but dislike having predefined layouts. Being able to split any tile horizontally or vertically arbitrarily many times is the way to go (i.e. i3-style). Would like to see tiling wm authors to consider this option when starting new projects.

ianyh 12y ago
It's on the list of things I want to do. I should have used a tree structure off the bat and done something like binary space partitioning.

axotty 12y ago

Am I the only weirdo who just uses multiple workspaces with ctrl-arrow and cmd-tab like a mad man? I genuinely enjoy it, especially with a second monitor. I, maybe, have one or two apps sharing a single workspace. Most apps are in full screen.

Cushman 12y ago
I do this with trackpad swipes and a grid of desktops (using TotalSpaces2 currently). Each app or task has its "place". I've tried other stuff, but the spatial metaphor really works for me.
pmoriarty 12y ago
This is pretty much how I use my favorite tiling window manager on Linux: i3.[1] There are occasions when tiling features come in handy, however (such as when you want to see more than one window at the same time). [1] - http://i3wm.org/ http://i3wm.org/
chipotle_coyote 12y ago
You are not. :) I don't usually use full screen mode for apps when my Macbook Pro is docked, but when I'm just using the laptop screen it's ended up being surprisingly useful. (At least I was surprised.) Docked I'm usually only using two virtual desktops, sometimes three. Mission Control gets slagged on more than it deserves -- it's fast and functional. On point for the actual link to Amethyst: I use Moom for window resizing/control from the keyboard, but in practice the mouse is actually pretty darn efficient when what I want is to make a window this big and put it over there.

pmoriarty 12y ago

Does anyone know whether there's any chance i3 could be ported to OS X's native windowing system (whatever it's called) ?

thinkmassive 12y ago
You can probably run i3 in X11, although non-X11 apps won't work with it. Your best bet is to run i3 in a full-screen VM. I researched this myself a few months back, since i3 was the biggest thing I missed when I had to switch to OS X (new company, new computer). Eventually I gave up and settled on Amethyst. It's not bad once you set up the keyboard shortcuts to your liking. The main things I miss are the tree structure for window organization, and window borders that stick together when resized. I created some bounties on bountysource for features I'd like to see in this project. Hopefully other people want them enough to contribute as well, and ianyh will get a nice return on his contributions.

pmoriarty 12y ago

Wow. This has focus follows mouse! (though they call it "mouse-follows-focus", for some reason) I've been told focus follows mouse was impossible on OS X.

TkTech 12y ago
Who told you that? You could do it with just applescript if you wanted to, just need to enable accessibility so you can control windows and the mouse.
- pmoriarty 12y ago
  I've seen this "limitation" mentioned in various online forums, such as the following. "Mac OS X interface and ergonomy is (as said by apple) not 'compatible' with the focus-follow mouse mode. Why ? Because a single application interface is split into lots of different elements. For exemple, you use an application like photoshop or word, you'll have different panels floating around the main window. With sloppy focus mode enabled, with an application below, you would'nt be able to reach them. And how should they consider the desktop, which is, finally, just a 'root' window managed by the Finder..."[1] Here are some more. "Sadly, it seems that for the time being there is no good way to do this in OS X."[2] "The fundamental problem with sloppy focus on the Mac is that the menu bar is always associated with the currently focused application; if you had sloppy focus, accessing the menu bar for a specific application would be supremely difficult."[2] [1] - http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000149.html#comment-14550 http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000149.html#comment-... [2] - http://superuser.com/questions/27306/focus-follows-mouse-or-sloppy-focus-on-mac-os-x http://superuser.com/questions/27306/focus-follows-mouse-or-...
  - jre 12y ago
    Regarding the first argument (apps with multiple panels), the author should try Linux. Gimp (and others) works fine on Linux with sloppy focus. The global menu bar is indeed a problem, but it can be alleviated by adding a small delay before changing focus (so fast mouse movements to reach the menu won't change focus).

shawn-furyan 12y ago

I've been using Amethyst as my WM for a couple months now, and have used XMonad for significant stretches in the past. Amethyst tries to bring the XMonad experience to OSX. I think it does an admirable job, but there are some distinctions. Amethyst is simpler to set up, and is more forgiving to newcomers. It has a GUI for configuration, and an easily accessible list of commands. It also works on top of OSX's WM, so it's not so enormous a departure, especially compared to XMonad's fairly extreme dismissal of the mouse. On the down side, XMonad really outshines Amethyst when it comes to performance. Amethyst is downright sluggish, where I've always found XMonad to be very responsive. Still, it's overall a true enough translation, and the sluggishness rarely actually hinders productivity. Overally, I think Amethyst is a capable daily driver, and a great intro to tiled window managers.

ics 12y ago
It is also very buggy around fullscreen apps, enough so that I stopped using it after a week. Slate et al worked much better for me (still slower than TWMs on linux) but forced or at least tempted more setup which is definitely the benefit of Amethyst.
- ianyh 12y ago
  It is super buggy for fullscreen apps. Unfortunately, I have this superpower (or curse) of not being able to reproduce bugs. Every time I get near a coworker's computer, whatever they were talking to me about starts working. There's a long thread on github about this (https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/254 https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/254). I'd love to know more about your set up. I've been trying for weeks to make it work for people, but Apple's APIs for this are kind of crap. And by crap I mean non-existent. I've started using private APIs to do things like figuring out whether or not the current desktop is a fullscreen app.
  - ics 12y ago
    I came across that issue and might contribute info in the way of reproducing bugs, but my setup is pretty simple: near fresh Yosemite install, one Chrome window, one Finder window, and two Emacs.app frames (one fullscreen).

ianyh 12y ago

I'm the Amethyst developer. I'm happy to answer any questions people have. I'm hopping on a cross-country plane flight in about an hour, but I have a layover. I'll try get back to people as soon as I can.

hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
Cool app, thank you. Trying it out. Do you know if it's possible to have apps start in fullscreen (the real one, as in Yosemite) by default? I would like that as default and only tile on some spaces.
- ianyh 12y ago
  That is an interesting idea. I'm not actually sure whether or not it's possible. Unfortunately I'm on a plane and my phone won't let me make github issues. I'll add one to look into when I land.
Semiapies 12y ago
Just wanted to say that I liked your donation section. You don't often see one where someone says Here are some things that you'd might rather donate to than my project.
nuclear_eclipse 12y ago
Is there a way to set up custom layouts? Eg, I'd love to have a variant of tall/wide-tall that puts the main area on the right side of the display, rather than the left.
- Karunamon 12y ago
  +1 for this question. I've got a dual head box hooked up to my machine, and I'd do just about anything for a window management solution that would let me divide up this 3840x1080 "virtual" display into two equal displays. Mostly so dialogs stop appearing in the split between displays.
- ianyh 12y ago

0942v8653 12y ago

I use a window manager, but really only to have a hotkey that fullscreens a window (three, actually: one for current, one for left and one for right display). With 2 displays, I find that I have all I need with just an editor window and a documentation browser window. I guess I have smaller displays than most people because if I resize a window (browser windows mostly) beyond about 2/3 its layout gets messed up or a horizontal scrollbar appears.

dylanz 12y ago

First off, thank you ianyh!! Tiling window managers are a huge productivity tool, and when I see people manually resizing windows, it's painful to watch. I'm on OSX now, but used XMonad extensively when I was on a *n?x distro. At the moment, I'm using Spectacle for OSX. http://spectacleapp.com/ http://spectacleapp.com/. Are there reasons I should use Amethyst instead? I'd love to see a feature matrix or something in you FAQ about the other options, and what Amethyst brings to the table.

ianyh 12y ago
A feature matrix isn't a bad idea (and I opened an issue to track https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/267 https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/267), but it's kind of hard to compare as they are such different pieces of software. Spectacle is manual window management and Amethyst is tiling window management. Manual window management generally gives you better control and generally less overhead in terms of complexity. So it works well in the case of "I want to be able to move this window to the upper half of the screen", "I want to be able to make this window take up the entire screen", etc. You have to trade simplicity to get flexibility, though. What if I want to be able to move window to the upper right hand quarter of the screen? Or what if I want my screen divided into a grid of 3x4 and I want a window in the [0][1] position? You can accomplish all of those things, but you have to specify how to go about it, thus adding complexity. Slate, for example, puts that complexity upfront in writing a config file. Divvy, for example, puts that complexity at runtime. Tiling window management gives you a more hands off approach. So things like "I want all of my windows to be laid out in this orientation, but I don't want to move them myself", "I want all of my windows to be visible at any given time", etc. You don't take actions to lay windows out, you just define algorithms for how they should be laid out and let the software sort them out. You have to trade simplicity to get control, though. Defining those algorithms can be complicated if you're not doing something really straightforward, and if you're not doing something straightforward it can sometimes be non-trivial to grok what's actually going on. Or you end up doing a lot of runtime massaging to get things working the way you want. To each their own, though. I prefer tiling window management, I have coworkers who prefer manual window management. They're just different tools.

DevMonkey 12y ago

For Windows I just stumbled across MaxTo (http://maxto.net/ http://maxto.net/) I've been using it for a couple of days and I'm really impressed.

chriswarbo 12y ago
In a previous life I used http://code.google.com/p/python-windows-tiler/ http://code.google.com/p/python-windows-tiler/ for Windows. It's not the most stable application though.

hugg 12y ago

Looks really weird with the window shadows though.

ianyh 12y ago
You can theoretically turn off window shadows. https://github.com/puffnfresh/toggle-osx-shadows https://github.com/puffnfresh/toggle-osx-shadows
jeromenerf 12y ago
Yep, I like adding some space between windows. I proposed something like that for spectale some weeks ago. Got refused. https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/issues/290 https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/issues/290 I mostly use apps in fullscreen and sometimes need to see 3 /3 apps at the same time, then switch to fullscreen, then back to tiled mode again... Small aesthetic gaps around windows may not be such a waste of screen estate.
- ianyh 12y ago
  Window spacing is actually in the works for Amethyst. It just has some issues because some windows just don't size exactly. Terminal windows, for example, only size in increments of cursor size, so you're almost always a bit smaller or a bit larger than you want, which makes the spacing in between windows look weird.
  - jeromenerf 12y ago
    I noticed that with or without my spectacle patch. I tend to prefer uneven gaps than no gaps though, considering how unpleasant overlapping drop shadows looks like.

nchuhoai 12y ago

I've used BetterTouchTool's tiling functionality for the most part, but I just got a 4K monitor and most granular most tiling managers can do is quarters. I wish there was an out-of-the-box solution that allows me to just tile my space more granularly

gngrwzrd 12y ago

it's ok, I prefer to be able to set windows where I want them and assign keyboard shortcuts. I was the original author of Breeze, now autumn apps has it available - http://autumnapps.com/breeze/index.html http://autumnapps.com/breeze/index.html

oDot 12y ago

Seeing this (and others like it), what's the benefit of having a tiling-only WM over a floating WM with tiling capabilities?

ianyh 12y ago
Well, Amethyst can float windows so I wouldn't call it a tiling-only WM, but there's a lot of reasons I prefer it over floating window managers. I'm really lazy and want software to deal with my windows for me. I used floating window managers for a long time and found that I spent a lot of my time arranging windows in the same patterns. I also found that with floating window managers were just too limited for things I wanted to do on a daily basis. Two come to mind off hand. I want to be able to make a window temporarily bigger, but keeping the other windows on the screen and sized appropriately and I want to be able to easily switch which window is the "primary window." When I'm doing web development without external screens I find it very help to have an editor and a browser window open at the same time. One of them takes up about 80% of the screen and the other takes up about 20% of the screen, but I switch which is which pretty often. Make the editor take up most of the screen, make some changes loosely referencing things in the browser window, make the browser window take up most of the screen and see effects loosely referencing the code in the editor. And sometimes I've also got a Hulu or Netflix window open taking 20% of the width and 50% of the height. The complexity of making that work with a floating window manager is just too much compared to how easy it is for a tiling window manager. I also just like being able to see everything on my screen at the same time.

cheshire137 12y ago

Divvy is sufficient for me.

robbles 12y ago

As someone who's relatively new to tiling window managers (I've used manual ones like Divvy and Moom quite a bit though): is this approach only really effective with large monitors? I've given Amethyst and other WMs a shot in the past and been instantly annoyed when they automatically tucked away windows into unusably small configurations. Is this part of the learning curve and addressed by proper configuration, or should be avoiding this for use on small screens? e.g. a MB Air 13"

lingodayz 12y ago

I wish there was a window manager such as this but where you could put the application into full screen mode. So have two programs running in full screen mode side by side. Sublime and others (iterm) look so much less distracting without their window frames.

soundjack 12y ago

No one mentioned this one yet, it's not free but works pretty well with Windows 7-like snapping too: http://www.nulana.com/flexiglass/ http://www.nulana.com/flexiglass/