Comment by fellowniusmonk
1 day ago
I've moved from window managers to deterministic app switching with Rcmd mapped to capslock and dual cmd being tied to some window arrangement and screen swapping karabiner commands.
I've switched to what I consider a french cleat system where I have task specific app/window sets and only keep a single task open at a time.
Similar to how french cleat walls are for general storage but then you can arrange all tools for a project on a specific cleat for the duration of the project.
How many apps must a person use in reality that rcmd+letter isn't sufficient for deterministic switching?
Any web app that isn't just general browsing I have mapped to a safari app now, gmail, llms, etc. chrome's tab management is just a joke.
What do you use to manage window arrangements?
Never understood this.. Window arrangements depends on what I'm doing inside those app, and where I want it. That's not a static thing. I use rcmd as well, but I usually like to keep the app I am using in the middle of the screen. Perhaps with something on the side (since I have a large 4K) as there's plenty room for it.
Yeah but, have you seen a French cleat storage system?
I’m at a point where my preferred arrangements are pretty static. Either full screen, split in half, or one window on left and two others top/bottom on the right. Some apps on MacOS have opinionated minimum window sizes that can obscure parts of the GUI so in a pinch top or bottom half sizes become necessary. At this point it seems warranted for me to disclose that I too use rcmd.
A setup allowing me to shuffle across these arrangements and automatically place new windows according to them would be nice. I think it’s possible with tools like Aerospace but I never felt the drive to try it out until I saw those French cleats!
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I mostly full-screen each app, deterministic switching means I only real need alt layouts if something forces a cross window dnd. But I just use capslock+cmd and jkl; plus a few other keys to handle any adhoc positioning I need. j is left quarter, jk left half, jkl left 3/4, kl middle half, l fullscreen, etc, hitting them again cycles to top half bottom half.
So with left hand caps+cmd and right hand home row I can basically do any of 1/4 2/4 3/4 4/4 increment combos with one chord and hit them again for top half bottom half.
I don't really do single quarters ever except on far left or right so that's why l is mapped fullscreen.
it works very well, was a long time user of btt before I got tired of it randomly failing.
a karabiner script handles the key chords and dumps them to yabai
Do you have a repo anywhere? Would love to give your setup a go. I use a mish mash of yabai + Amethyst + skhd + karabiner.