I coworker runs his windows box with about 100 tabs iOS. Sometimes. Just close some shit.
I do tend to have multiple terminals (local tmux session, remote tmux session, tmux session dedicated to my text editor), which I launch with custom app_ids so that they all have their own separate keybind.
Just to let you know you can probably get something pretty personalized outside of macOS as well!
But obviously, to each their workflow!
It's excellent, except I wish the mouse interacted it on click instead of mousover. Still better than the default.
(another tool along those lines I use is uBar, which is a Windows-style taskbar for macOS)
I really can't figure out what your issue is after reading this several times. If the last active window was a different app, you hit Cmd+Tab. If the last active window is from the same app, you hit Cmd+`
In windows it doesn’t matter whether I switched from a Chrome window to a Firefox window or from one Firefox window to another one.
The cognitive load is way less.
Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit.
> Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit.
What fingers are you using for Cmd+tab if that's comfortable but not Cmd+`? It's exactly 1 key above tab.
Also there is this https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
* Cmd+~ from a fullscreen window does nothing, and non-full windows of the app cycle only among each other. If I have fullscreen windows anywhere in my setup, it breaks my flow and (afaik) makes me mouse to the Window menu. I feel like MacOS's fullscreen paradigm is more to blame here, because it violates a range of other behaviors I'd expect.
* Unlike cmd+tab, cmd+~ doesn't give me a visual overview of my windows (how many? what order?). I can see why, since cmd+tab shows only icons and app names, which isn't enough to differentiate between windows of the same app (unlike alt+tab on Windows, which shows thumbnails, paths, page titles, etc.
* Cmd+~ also cycles in a static order, not most recently used. This feels like fallout from the second point, in that if you're not showing thumbnails it could get confusing.
The first one in particular took me a bit of time to realize; before I did, it just felt broken and made me not rely on cmd+~ at all.
If you do treat it like you would CMD+Tab, the odds are you would hit CMD+1 fairly often.
It's on the side of the keyboard. If you're on tab, you just feel for one key up.
New stuff is cool and all but Xfce has been so boring for so long I keep forgetting I've upgraded.
One time tho, the buttons on dialog windows moved to the top (GTK thing?) - yea, took like a week to get used to it.
I had to create a new app to scratch that itch: https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd
I think the consistent shortcuts for switching between tabs are Cmd-Shift-[ and Cmd-Shift-]
It worked in all applications I used so far.
You’re also right about lack of visual feedback, which is disappointing given the various stuff that I think is still currently branded Mission Control, where obviously the fundamentals are already there.
Cmd ~ isn’t statically ordered though, it’s either application specific or based on recent use in a weird (easy to confuse) heuristic. It follows a similar (maybe identical?) pattern to recent use for cmd tab, and even app switching on iOS.
Now I'm a big fan and find it disorienting to go back to Windows but I've been here for 10 years. CMD + ~ all the way.
Maybe you need some more time, maybe you need to surrender to the ~ or maybe it's not your jam and that's ok too.
Makes sense, since cmd+~ immediately switches on key down to the next window; cmd+tab (like alt+tab in Win) lets you keep the selection open and choose an out-of-order app, which alters the MRU. How would you do that here? The only way I've affected it is creating/killing windows at points in the cycle. Using cmd+shift+~ for me just goes backward in the same static order.
I've always felt like multiple desktops (on all 3 OSes) have untapped potential, but like you its never worked for me. But hope springs eternal - I try it again every now and then. I'd like to hear more about how some people use it.
Heard good things about Rectangle. I'll check it out.
I’ve seen this most consistently in apps where I commonly have too many windows open, VSCode iTerm and Chrome being the worst offenders. Edit: my worst offenders, the apps don’t do anything unusual here.
Switching between recently used windows, regardless of app, is bound to control+f4 by default. [Cmd+tab/~ is clearly their preferred method.]
You can switch it to something more ergonomic in 'System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts' – 'Move focus to the active or next window'.
UX does differ somewhat between, Linux distros & WMs (and Chrome OS, to the extent you consider it Linux proper), and between releases of all three OSes; but within families they maintain broad continuity. I use multiple variants - again daily - and my point stands that all have untapped potential.
But I doubt you supposed otherwise, nor honestly think I'm unaware of other OSes... so why take the time to ask? Pedantry? Did I slight an OS you favor?