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You may be interested in https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

You made my day! This is one of the things that've been bugging me since I moved to Macos.. THANK YOU

This is the first thing I recommend to new Mac users.

Thank you for sharing this!

Hi OP,

I'm the author of AltTab (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/), a popular window switcher for macOS, imitating Windows famous alt+tab shortcut. I know for a fact how hard it is to implement what you did. It looks very nice, well done!

I see you ran into the issue of not being able to detect windows from other Spaces. Apple introduced it in macOS 12.2. If you're curious, you can see the vast efforts we've deployed trying to find a workaround: https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/1324. I wish some retro-engineering genius would solve this. We haven't been lucky so far. Of course Apple could fix this all in an instant with a new API, but that's very unlikely to happen.

Thank you


I am an occasional alt tab user and it is a great product. Thanks for building it. I am reasonably used to MacOS window management behavior but I still need something like alt tab once a while, that’s why it keeps running in the background.

I also really appreciate the partnership and open attitude your comment above demonstrates, and that to a potential‘competitor’.


Are you familiar with the change Apple made to app stack ordering where cmd+h no longer deprioritizes the window resulting in the wonderful cmd+h cmd+tab agghhhhhh cmd+h cmd+tab cmd+tab rage fest I haven't been able to stop inflicting upon myself every three seconds for years? I have yet to find a third-party app that fixes this. :)


This is what I don't understand. Ok apple does not care or does not want to spend resources on the window management mess of MacOS for whatever reason (iOS is more important, MacOS does not bring services revenue etc)

Just open the API for the 3rd party developers to fix your mess!


> open the API for the 3rd party developers

Coincidentally, after 10 years, and 100 releases of 0.9, HammerSpoon just released 1.0 in August 2024:

Hammerspoon is a bridge between the operating system and a Lua scripting engine. What gives Hammerspoon its power is a set of extensions that expose specific pieces of system functionality, to the user.

You can write Lua code that interacts with macOS APIs for applications, windows, mouse pointers, filesystem objects, audio devices, batteries, screens, low-level keyboard/mouse events, clipboards, location services, wifi, and more.

http://www.hammerspoon.org/


This is awesome, but still requires that apple gets their act together and expose/document their private objective c apis


These comments are one of the big reasons I love the HN community. Respect!


TIL macOS does not have alt+tab, how do you switch windows quickly?


CMD+tilde cycles through the current app's open windows.


It does not, we have to use cmd+tab :(


Working harder at something will create better outcomes. There is a lot to think about, mitigate, deal with. The more time you put on something, the better the results.

For example, your crops are getting attacked by insects. It's exogenous yet if you wake up in the night to come out and kill them, you'll save more crops.


> The more time you put on something, the better the results.

You'll rarely get worse results but it doesn't guarantee better results.

Which is exactly the sort of calculus that leads to people pushing so hard they actually do get worse results. See also: crunch culture.


> The more time you put on something, the better the results.

So if I manually do a task rather an automate it, my results will be better?


Hello,

Thank you for sharing this.

I'm genuinely wondering how our nose is not a good enough sensor. Are there common cases that affect large areas like the one you live in, where the pollution is not smellable?

Thank you


In my area in the winter you always sense air pollution.

But with just a nose it's hard to say if it's 100 μg/m3 of or 200 μg/m3 of PM2.5.


I never could smell the pollution in Bangkok. I don't think people in LA could smell the smog. Certainly when we had wildfire smoke here near Seattle a couple years ago, I could not always smell it. Sometimes when it was heavy, you could smell smoke right when you went outside, but not always... and your nose gets used to it really quickly. But like, that was pollution you could see, the skies were dark and orange. Not really typical pollution levels that people live in every day.


What a wonderful idea. Thank you for sharing this tool


Most people model themselves from their parents and the environment surrounding their youth. Most people are a product of social reproduction. Someone born in a circle is likely to identify with it and remain there.

Yes, there are exceptions. What you call "accident of birth". Statistically, they are uncommon.


Judging an individual by statistics of their group is pure discrimination.


So the Marquis de Lafayette isn't democratic patriot in two countries because he was born into the aristocracy?

Statistics part literally doesn't matter. You judge the person by their actions.


I think it's relevant here because these type of actions are controversial. Some say they serve the cause, some say they hurt the cause. If you believe that they hurt the cause, then you may find an explanation to those actions by digging into who's funding it.



These ways of life and ridiculous scale came with fossil fuel and will go away with it, within this century.

The mall of the future is probably something close to a farmer's market where people will come to sell goods with bikes/animals.

If you think the current lifestyle of developped nations will continue its trends, you're in for a surprise, as early as the next decades.


Within this century? Not even a chance.


The top of the pyramid are important because they set what the majority of us will want to emulate. If Swift is flying her private jet, then young high-schooler and adults will calibrate on that and fly to Thailand for the holidays because they perceive it desirable to fly around.

If we had influencers who would take a stand, it would be very beneficial at global scale actually. Let's say the top football/soccer players would decline to attend the world cup because having A/C'd stadiums in Qatar, and flying both the athletes and the fans there is generating large emissions. If they took that stand and shared it to their 50M followers-each mimetic fanbase, the benefits for society would be wonderful.

It's worth pursuing exemplarity of our elites because it sets the flagpost for everyone else. Redefining success from rolex, sport car, big house, to let's say skilled handcraft, raising horses, and living in a small rural community; that would really be beneficial to us all.


Do you want to buy a Rolex if Swift wears one? Or Celine Dione or whatever your idol is.


People buy rolex to imitate "successful" people. Very few buy rolex because it's useful to them or they are into clock engineering. Rolex doesn't output ads that explain how the clock works; instead they pay celebrities to show up with their watches ostensibly.

Look around you at society. People buy brand cloth like $300 white tshirt because of the brand logo on it. I think it's pretty established how humans behave on that regard. Now if you're not convinced (it seems), i suggest you google some sociology studies and look into something more scientific than my example. Feel free to share if my observations are proven untrue.


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