

Tell HN: Cinch, W7-like window management for OSX - pxlpshr
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/

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ghempton
What a milestone for windows when people on OSX are using 3rd party apps to
emulate its UX.

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boredguy8
Still doesn't handle multiple monitors as elegantly as Win7 though,
unfortunately. The Win7 windows management is so intuitive, most of the
features I discovered accidentally, as I went about the process of manually
doing what windows should have done for ages.

~~~
iamelgringo
I've been using windows 7 since shortly after the first beta went out, and one
of the things that I really love the OS (and why I've stuck with Windows in
general) is how it handles my 3 monitors. Flicking apps and windows across my
large central monitor and two 19" peripheral monitors with just a few
keystrokes is really, really nice.

One of my New Years resolutions this year is to see if Win 7 makes life a
little easier with 5 monitors. :) I hate context switching. I want it all in
front of me at all times.

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euroclydon
The window management for OSX sort of... sucks. I've been using Windows for
years and just bought a Mac and I was pretty shocked at how much effort it
took to tile two windows.

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GHFigs
Your experience with a new interface will be improved by making use of the
affordances it offers rather than lamenting the ones it does not. To do
otherwise is akin to eating soup with a fork.

~~~
jsankey
Your comment might be more constructive if your offered the OP a solution to
their actual problem of tiling two windows (or perhaps the underlying need to
compare the contents of two windows easily). What affordances does OSX offer
in this respect?

~~~
GHFigs
The problem of tiling two windows is one with many solutions, one of which _is
the submission itself_. As to the _actual problem_ expressed by the OP, my
comment addresses that.

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pxlpshr
I have no affiliation with this guy whatsoever but I just found this app and
it's so amazing that I had to share it. It lets you 'cinch' windows side-by-
side like in Windows 7, as well as easily maximize a window. I figured I
couldn't be the only one looking for an OSX app like this..

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amoeba
Thanks for the tip! I've been using TwoUp for a while and have found it
useful. This is even better.

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besologic
Great find!

Here's a keyboard driven alternative that folks might be interested in as
well: <http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/>

~~~
BrianHV
This is exactly what I've been looking for since I switched back to the Mac
from Linux a few years ago. Thanks for the pointer!

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weaksauce
This is quite possibly the best thing I have done to my mac.

Set it up like this and you will never forget the configuration:

[http://zacharypinter.com/2009/06/15/keyboard-driven-
window-m...](http://zacharypinter.com/2009/06/15/keyboard-driven-window-
management-in-osx.html)

The only thing I changed is that I have the center window mapped to
cmd+opt+ctrl+k. This is so you can quickly do a left side keyboard command and
then center the narrower window. I do this because sometimes windows look
funny open all the way on a wide screen monitor and you only want one window
open in the think app.

~~~
BrianHV
I like it. It's actually very close to what I did with sawfish back in the
day. Being a vim guy myself, I bound left/down/up/right to hjkl. I may steal
some of your ideas as I experiment with my SizeUp bindings though.

~~~
weaksauce
I am glad you like the article but alas, I stand on the shoulder of giants as
it is not my article. My only contribution is the addition of the screen
centering method.

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Irradiated
Ok, using pxlpshr suggestion, I just updated the website and screencast with a
tip on how to better use Cinch with multiple displays:
<http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/>

Thanks pxlpshr!

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ghshephard
Probably the single greatest flaw of OS X, from my perspective, is how it
renders large monitors so much less effective than two medium size monitors -
nobody I know would prefer a 30" monitor to two (2) 24" Monitors - If someone
could only write a windowing manager that converted a single large monitor to
two simulated physical monitors, that would be a start. Even better would be
to recognize you need to treat a 30" Monitor differently than a 17" Monitor
from a windowing perspective.

That and get Terminal.app to actually _tile_ sanely. If I had a _single_
feature request for 10.7 - it would be a window manager that gave you sane
tiling capability.

~~~
edd
Arguably in the Windows world this is even worse. The default reflex in
Windows is to maximise every window you have. At least with on OSX the default
way of making a window bigger is just to "zoom" it to a better size.

Also regarding tiling terminal.app you should really have a look at GNU
Screen. You can use it to create multiple sessions in one window that are
split in a 'sane' way.

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amoeba
This is immensely useful. Would love to see support for custom drop-zones with
custom actions. For example, allow the user to change the width from 1/2
screen to 1/3 or 1/4. Or even 1/2 width and 1/2 height instead of 1/2 width
and full height.

~~~
lemming
+1 - I use a 30" monitor at work, half the screen is too much. But I'd love to
be able to split it into thirds, with the top target area being the middle
third.

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nixme
Cinch is great. I've been using it for a couple days now and it's made
managing windows easier on large screens.

If you're just looking for a proper maximize in OS X, wrongzoom[1] is a great
free alternative. After installing, most apps will maximize and restore
instead of zooming when you click the green button in the titlebar.

[1] <http://github.com/spicyj/wrongzoom>. For Snow Leopard 64-bit support,
build from <http://github.com/nesty/wrongzoom> instead.

~~~
spicyj
Hey, people actually look at what I write! I didn't realize my version isn't
64-bit compatible. I'll see if I can fix it in my fork later today.

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chappi42
I use the Zooom/2 (<http://coderage-software.com/zooom/>) windows resizer
since long time. Not W7-like but it's great 'anyway'.

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chow
I've been a SizeUp user for about 8 months, and use it every day. The
Cinch/SizeUp developer has been responsive and open to user feedback and
suggestions. Highly recommended.

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DannoHung
Since this sort of Window management stuff is clearly possible, why isn't it
also possible to have XMonad or something lime it do DWM on OS X (or Windows,
for that matter)?

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tlrobinson
This is great, I've been wanting something like this for OS X for awhile.

It would also be nice if you could make windows snap to various edges, as well
as offer a virtual "pane-splitter" to adjust the dimensions of stacked windows
(and maybe group certain windows together, though I suppose Spaces could be
used for that)

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theschwa
Anything like this that will run in a linux windows manager?

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Locke1689
If you run a tiling window manager like AwesomeWM or Xmonad it's the default.

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jawngee
Great!

A little difficulty with multiple monitors, but workable.

~~~
pxlpshr
one of the guys I work with had a good suggestion that's working well for me.
Nudge the monitor down just a tad so there's a small 'wall' in the top (or
bottom) corner to catch...

<http://grab.by/1kfI>

~~~
dgallagher
FYI to other readers, Cinch won't trigger itself if you drag a window to the
"seam" between monitors on your desktop if you're using multi-monitors. It
only appears to trigger if you drag to an edge on your desktop.

But pxlpshr's fix above appears to work fine. :)

~~~
pxlpshr
it works with dual monitors but you just have to be very delicate and move the
mouse extremely slow which defeats the purpose.

