
Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation - dexterleng
http://vimacapp.com
======
dexterleng
Hello all! I am a student from Singapore who was introduced to Vimium by a
friend two years ago. Vimac is my attempt to implement Vimium on an OS level.

I have shared this app on Reddit about a year ago. Since then, the notable
changes would be a major performance buff in webkit/electron, force keyboard
layout, and reducing the overwhelming no. of hints to what is just
"clickable".

It is open source at
[https://github.com/dexterleng/vimac/](https://github.com/dexterleng/vimac/).

Do let me know if you have any questions!

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pazimzadeh
I don't know vim. If I get used to this, will I be halfway to knowing vim?

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dexterleng
It's very much like Vimium, which is nothing like Vim, so no. I see Vimium
being referred to as "vim bindings" for chrome which I never got. Maybe
someone could enlighten me on this.

~~~
cuchoi
There are some bindings that are the same as vim (gg, G, /, i, v, etc.). But
overall I wouldn't say it helps you learn vim.

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asjldkfin
Love this app. Absolutely check it out if you are serious about keyboard
navigation.

The only suggestion I’d make is to have the cursor return to its old position
after an action. But it’s a minor nitpick.

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dexterleng
I'm glad you like it!

> cursor return to its old position after an action

Will do!

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ryen
make it optional =)

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refresher
The headlining quote on the site seems a bit silly. Does anyone consider their
Mac trackpad to be "clunky"?

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seventhtiger
It's the best trackpad out there, and all trackpads are clunky and non-
ergonomic. A mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, or almost anything else is better.
Due to the location of a trackpad you are guaranteed to have your wrist bent
which limits how long you can work before discomfort.

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ndand
Very handy!

My right wrist used to pain a lot because of excessive mouse usage. I had
tried out various keyboard-driven apps but I didn't find any app practical
enough for my needs, so I made one.

I'd like to share here my "generic" keyboard-driven navigation app for
Windows:

[https://github.com/ndandoulakis/SlickCursor](https://github.com/ndandoulakis/SlickCursor)

~~~
mjcohen
I had similar problems years ago and switched to a trackball. No problems
since. I use a Logitech with thumb moving the ball. I keep it and keyboard at
waist level with monitor at eye level.

~~~
ndand
It took about a year without mouse use for my wrist to heal. Now I use a mouse
but I'm very careful with posture and mouse positioning.

How long did it take to familiarize yourself with the trackball?

I didn't really try other pointing devices because I thought that they won't
be as good as the mouse, plus I liked the idea of using keyboard-driven
navigation software.

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wakkaflokka
I have been looking for something like this for a LONG time. Impressive! My
ideal state is to be able to navigate anything and everything with VIM
keybindings. Including the physical world :)

~~~
steffan
I'm sure there's a way to hack this into a Tesla

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ivan888
Really want a way to have vi-mode input in all text inputs throughout the OS,
hopefully that is a future possibility

~~~
wavesplash
You may know this already but emacs keys are supported in all text input areas
on Mac. Carl-a (start of text), Carl-e (end of text) Carl-k (cut Text to end
of line) Carl-y (yank/paste cut text) and many more.

~~~
narwally
And the Mac kill ring is separate from the clipboard so that means you can
have two things copied at once and insert them with separate keybindings.
Unfortunately the kill ring only contains a single element, so has no history.

some other useful ones are C-h/C-d (backwords/forwards delete), C-o (insert
line), and the main Emacs movement keys C-n, C-p, C-b, C-f. Remapping Capslock
to be a second Control makes using these regularly much more natural.
Karabiner is a good app for easily remapping keys on macOS.

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mkskm
This is great, thank you! Although, the name seems like a bit of a misnomer
since there's not much in common with vim aside from the HJKL keys. It's more
like EasyMotion or avy-mode.

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js2sj
The idea is great, but I don't think it'll be faster for me to navigate in Mac
using vimac than using trackpad or mouse currently.

I think the thing which is not wonderful now is: in vim, you enter a mode, in
that mode, you can do a series of navigation to get to the final destination.
While in vimac, you enter a mode to do just one navigation and you're out of
the mode, you have to press the key enter the mode again to do another
navigation. This makes me feel not productive at all.

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stefanfisk
I’ve been thinking about implementing something like this for years - it’s
great to see that someone actually went ahead and did it!

The accessibility API is one thing that I really miss since mostly leaving
macOS for Linux. Most apps support it in at least a rudimentary way, and it
allows for a bunch of neat tricks.

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siproprio
I really want a version of this for Windows as well!

~~~
ziftface
Would also love a gnome/linux version.

~~~
sabrehagen
I've been searching for this for almost a year...
[https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/ers1b0/vimium_for...](https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/ers1b0/vimium_for_desktop/)

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RMPR
I remember when you posted this on Reddit[0] very happy you continued to work
on it. At one point I might even switch to macOS :)

0:
[https://reddit.com/r/vim/comments/dc95by/vimac_vimium_for_ma...](https://reddit.com/r/vim/comments/dc95by/vimac_vimium_for_macos/)

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tkainrad
Great job! Always amazing when a single person sees a problem and engineers
the hell out of it.

For everyone interested in efficient keyboard usage: You might enjoy
KeyCombiner - a web app to organize, learn, and practice keyboard shortcuts.

[https://keycombiner.com/](https://keycombiner.com/)

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hackerm0nkey
awesome indeed. Any plans to support more Vim navigations, something like 'gg'
and 'G' would be useful IMO. As well as the ability to use a custom 'ESC'
mapping to leave the scroll mode.

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rado
Two letters appeared on a Safari tab, I typed them and nothing happened. Why?

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submeta
Wow, seems phantastic. Love vimium in Firefox and all automation / keyboard
remapping tools on the Mac (Keyboard Maestro, Alfred App, Karabiner Elements).
Will definitely check this out.

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justnotworthit
I've been using Shortcat for this and Amethyst for tiling. Glad to see another
project. Anyone know Windows OS equivalents?

~~~
elrostelperien
This one seems to work similarly:
[https://www.blastsearch.net/](https://www.blastsearch.net/)

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rasen58
How does this compare to Shortcat? I tried Shortcat a while ago but it didn't
work well for me

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tcoff91
This is incredible! wow!

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lvturner
Thank you for this! It fills such a huge gap in my workflow!

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toptal
Can someone please create this for Cubase, Logic, etc.

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danra
Thank you on behalf of my RSI.

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nchudleigh
yes yes yes yes yes. can’t wait to try this out. heavy vimium user

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xenonite
macOS 10.14 or later required. (Still on 10.11 here)

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andersonfreitas
Shortcat ([https://shortcatapp.com/](https://shortcatapp.com/)) works on
10.10+

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LeicaLatte
Very cool!

