8 ms·

OSX has never gotten the basic keyboard interactions right that Windows has had from the beginning: The ability to trivially navigate menus from the keyboard.

OSX has never gotten the basic keyboard interactions right that Windows has had from the beginning: The ability to trivially navigate menus from the keyboard. I want Alt-F to open the file menu, and then "S" to save a file. Yes, I know that the Mac has Cmd-S to save, but there can be 50+ menu options spread across various menus, and the 10-15 that I use the most are far easier to remember (for me) as Alt-[menu letter], [hot letter of menu entry]. When you know what the underlined letters mean, it makes every new app have a completely discoverable keyboard interface that is easy to memorize, and it's one of the key advantages of Windows of OSX. That feature alone is why I only use Windows and Linux (except when I am forced to use OSX to do iOS builds) for development.

wingerlang 11y ago
What about 'CMD'+'?'
- SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
  Does that bring up a place to type a command to search for? Doesn't work for me. I don't often use the global search feature on Windows (I hate the broken new start "menu" for that reason) because my brain doesn't work that way; if I have to think up the name of the feature and type it, I've already burned too many cycles. It is useful to have a command search for when you can't remember. But I want a faster way to get to commands that uses fewer brain-CPU cycles.
  - wingerlang 11y ago
    It should, on OSX this is. > It is useful to have a command search for when you can't remember. I never saw it as a search method, just a quick way of finding the menu item you're looking for. It also brings the menu itself up to the view which gives you the location itself.
drewgross 11y ago
I totally agree with you, Windows does it better, but cmd+shift+/ is a pretty good replacement. It opens the help menu, and then you can just type the name of the command you are looking for. It doesn't handle the case where you don't know a program well, but it's quite good at the case where you know a feature should exist, but you don't know the shortcut for it.
- christianmann 11y ago
  Interesting. When I saw cmd+shift+/ I had no idea what that would look like on the keyboard, or why it made sense. I'm a touch typer. Once I tried it, I instantly recognized it as cmd+?, a shortcut I have used quite a bit.
fyolnish 11y ago
The idea is that you'd use the mouse when you don't remember the keyboard shortcut.
- SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
  Yes, and that is what's broken. It's been broken from the original release of the Mac through today. If I wanted to stop actually being fully productive and go down to 1/10th speed, then sure, I could use the mouse. But I like getting real work done at a reasonable clip. The slow-down can break my "flow state", too, which is even worse than the 10-15 second delay.

wingerlang 11y ago

What about 'CMD'+'?'

SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
Does that bring up a place to type a command to search for? Doesn't work for me. I don't often use the global search feature on Windows (I hate the broken new start "menu" for that reason) because my brain doesn't work that way; if I have to think up the name of the feature and type it, I've already burned too many cycles. It is useful to have a command search for when you can't remember. But I want a faster way to get to commands that uses fewer brain-CPU cycles.
- wingerlang 11y ago
  It should, on OSX this is. > It is useful to have a command search for when you can't remember. I never saw it as a search method, just a quick way of finding the menu item you're looking for. It also brings the menu itself up to the view which gives you the location itself.

drewgross 11y ago

I totally agree with you, Windows does it better, but cmd+shift+/ is a pretty good replacement. It opens the help menu, and then you can just type the name of the command you are looking for. It doesn't handle the case where you don't know a program well, but it's quite good at the case where you know a feature should exist, but you don't know the shortcut for it.

christianmann 11y ago
Interesting. When I saw cmd+shift+/ I had no idea what that would look like on the keyboard, or why it made sense. I'm a touch typer. Once I tried it, I instantly recognized it as cmd+?, a shortcut I have used quite a bit.

fyolnish 11y ago

The idea is that you'd use the mouse when you don't remember the keyboard shortcut.

SomeCallMeTim 11y ago
Yes, and that is what's broken. It's been broken from the original release of the Mac through today. If I wanted to stop actually being fully productive and go down to 1/10th speed, then sure, I could use the mouse. But I like getting real work done at a reasonable clip. The slow-down can break my "flow state", too, which is even worse than the 10-15 second delay.