> Of course, I still use the mouse. I’m not a zealot.
Just wanted to add a fun anecdote. I had a coworker who seemed allergic to the keyboard. Bound almost every job function to a mouse macro. I joked that I'd come to work one day and all they'd have is a monitor and mouse on their desk, nothing else. They laughed but I got the feeling they'd do it if they could.
All of this "getting productive" with window managers, especially in the context of macOS is just yakshaving and, unless you enjoy doing it a waste of time. The point of macOS is to have a system with tasteful defaults.
I'm never going to use a tiling window manager, but I also never touch Mission Control (or Spotlight). I use Alfred.app to call things up; before Alfred.app, all the way back into the early aughts, I was using Quicksilver.app, which does the same thing. CMD-Space, type a couple letters, blam.
"But for 90% of web browsing, lifting my hand to the mouse is unnecessary friction"
By this point, I realized that the OP uses a normal mouse. The MacBook trackpad is so good that I feel weird using a mouse these days. Also, the travel between the keyboard and trackpad is much smaller.
Thanks for sharing your process and config! I went on a pretty similar journey, though I've been on macOS the whole time. I've gotta say, Aerospace is one of my favorite pieces of software. It really makes it so much less tedious to move around my computer.
I tried vimium and homerow too, and I liked them, but lately I've been using mouseless more (https://mouseless.click) and overall would recommend it.
Aerospace looks neat - might have to give it a try.
However, honestly, 99% of my multitasking pain on MacOS comes from the un-removable ~300ms animation delay when switching spaces. "Reduced Motion" changes the animation to a fade and doesn't solve the problem.
If I could instantaneously switch between virtual desktops I'd be so happy. I've wanted this for years.
> Bypassing the Mouse.. I use Vimium in the browser.
Vimium seems great for navigation.
Is there any way to get vim keybindings inside text boxes? (I looked at 'wasavi' chrome extension which hasn't been updated in 8 years [0] and the website's down [1])
>This turns navigation into muscle memory. Cmd-2 is not "Switch to Terminal"; Cmd-2 is just the physical reflex of "I want to code." I don't look. I just hit the key combination, and the active workspace changes.
What happens when some app (like, say, the browser) binds Cmd+<number>? If I hit Cmd+2 right now it'd switch me to the second tab in firefox. Seems like a pain to have to rebind everything.
I love Shortcat but it's too slow to be usable on my i5-based MacBook Pro. I have been using Wooshy instead, but I'll be checking out mouseless after seeing it mentioned here.
Strange, I use it on the same setup and have no issues. I imagine you already know that the delay of the overlays can be reduced and eliminated in the settings. I recently nuked and paved that machine, though, and everything feels like it's running faster than before.
I'm not familiar with Wooshy, so I'll have to check that out. Shortcat doesn't receive updates and for years there has been an indication that it would move from beta to licensed software (which I would happily pay for!), so I live in constant fear that it's on the road to abandonware.
If you have that many windows open within one work session, I pity you.
Joking aside, I actually solve this problem with my Tmux setup by using fuzzy search. I usually have 2-3 Tmux sessions where each one is a different project. The way I switch between them is by fuzzy finding.
I press a key, a pop-up appears, and after typing in three letters related to the project title, I'm already where I want to be.
I can imagine a similar solution where an application launcher can help you fuzzy find your way to a specific window based on the window's title. If the window doesn't include a project-specific title, then I'm out of ideas :)
One can make Spaces deterministic by turning off Automatically rearrange Spaces. Add keyboard shortcuts for quick access to each. On multi-display setups, you can have the whole group of displays work in lock-step on a project by turning off Displays have separate Spaces. These are the first two things I uncheck on a new system. Each Space can be dedicated to different projects using any number of apps instead of trying to correlate Spaces with specific apps. (Sadly, you can only have up to 16 Spaces.)
Side plug, I have a utility that lets you associate names with each Space: https://github.com/hyperjeff/NameSpace (Apple should’ve made naming Spaces standard, but no.)
You Cmd-Tab, release Tab but keep holding Cmd, and type the name or shortcut of the window. No preconfiguration necessary, it becomes automatic to just tell it what you want.
21 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 39.9 ms ] threadJust wanted to add a fun anecdote. I had a coworker who seemed allergic to the keyboard. Bound almost every job function to a mouse macro. I joked that I'd come to work one day and all they'd have is a monitor and mouse on their desk, nothing else. They laughed but I got the feeling they'd do it if they could.
But myself I just use quicksilver with a lot of features turned off.
I have browsers on desktop 1, music on 5, etc. I can jump to each numbered desktop with key binds. What am I missing?
Same with raycast, is that just a command space replacement?
Command tab / shift tab are huge favs for me when I’m cycling 2-3 apps.
Vimium looks cool gonna try that out.
By this point, I realized that the OP uses a normal mouse. The MacBook trackpad is so good that I feel weird using a mouse these days. Also, the travel between the keyboard and trackpad is much smaller.
I tried vimium and homerow too, and I liked them, but lately I've been using mouseless more (https://mouseless.click) and overall would recommend it.
However, honestly, 99% of my multitasking pain on MacOS comes from the un-removable ~300ms animation delay when switching spaces. "Reduced Motion" changes the animation to a fade and doesn't solve the problem.
If I could instantaneously switch between virtual desktops I'd be so happy. I've wanted this for years.
Vimium seems great for navigation.
Is there any way to get vim keybindings inside text boxes? (I looked at 'wasavi' chrome extension which hasn't been updated in 8 years [0] and the website's down [1])
[0] https://github.com/akahuku/wasavi
[1] http://appsweets.net/wasavi/
What happens when some app (like, say, the browser) binds Cmd+<number>? If I hit Cmd+2 right now it'd switch me to the second tab in firefox. Seems like a pain to have to rebind everything.
I'm not familiar with Wooshy, so I'll have to check that out. Shortcat doesn't receive updates and for years there has been an indication that it would move from beta to licensed software (which I would happily pay for!), so I live in constant fear that it's on the road to abandonware.
What's your solution to finding one of 10 widows within an app?
Joking aside, I actually solve this problem with my Tmux setup by using fuzzy search. I usually have 2-3 Tmux sessions where each one is a different project. The way I switch between them is by fuzzy finding.
I press a key, a pop-up appears, and after typing in three letters related to the project title, I'm already where I want to be.
I can imagine a similar solution where an application launcher can help you fuzzy find your way to a specific window based on the window's title. If the window doesn't include a project-specific title, then I'm out of ideas :)
Side plug, I have a utility that lets you associate names with each Space: https://github.com/hyperjeff/NameSpace (Apple should’ve made naming Spaces standard, but no.)
You Cmd-Tab, release Tab but keep holding Cmd, and type the name or shortcut of the window. No preconfiguration necessary, it becomes automatic to just tell it what you want.