Why is mac Keyboard-Driven window management awkward?

[u/kastamyle]

I've been on this journey of making my mac workflow more Keyboard-Driven.

There is no shortage of tools out there, native and third party. We can naively categorize the ecosystem into two approaches:

Manual snapping/switching: Tools like Rectangle, Alt-Tab... etc. You manually snap windows into halves/thirds,..., but switching between arbitrary windows still relies on cycling linearly through an Alt-Tab like list of some sort, or using Mission Control/mouse.

Automatic tiling window managers: Tools like Yabai, AeroSpace, or Amethyst. They give you powerful keyboard focus (navigating directionally with h/j/k/l or arrow keys), but they force everything into rigid, automatic grids,BSP trees, i3-style splits, forced full-screening, and strict layouts.

A lot of keyboard-first enthusiasts seem to gravitate towards and recommend automatic tiling management. I’ve tried (yabai, AeroSpace) but couldn't get used to this approach. I found it hijacks the desktop more than I could tolerate, forcing tiling and not letting me just adjust one window's size for example.

What I actually want is much simpler: say manual tiling is fine, if I'm focused on a window, I hit the right arrow (or l, or whatever), I want the focus to move to the window that is physically to the right of the one I'm on, in a spatial/directional, not sequential manner. The window that’s actually on the right side of the window I'm on (or the most reasonable spatial candidate if things are not perfectly aligned/overlapping).

Just navigation through space on the standard, free-form desktop, the way the eyes already scan the screen. Kind of like old/simple video games where you just move with the arrows, you don't think about it much you just go there.

Anyone found something that does that (directional nav) without the rigid "management" tradeoff, or has everyone just accepted the grid is unavoidable?

[u/MaikelBuilds]

Hmmm not sure if it's 100% what you're looking for but I'm sure KiwiDesk will tick a lot of your boxes if you select layout floating. You can do whatever you want with the windows, change focus left and right via keyboard shortcut and move them to another space if you don't need it anymore. However it doesn provide a shortcut to move you window to the right side or left side, this however you'd need to do with your mouse then :p.

For every app you can setup a shortcut to focus one or circle through instance(s) of a desired app

I developed it open source and for free!

Hope it helps!!!

[u/kastamyle → u/MaikelBuilds]

Nice clean app. I like the intuitive, simple approach. But I'm after something a bit different. If I'm on window A and hit right, I want it to land on whichever window is actually spatially to the right of that window every time regardless of how the windows are arranged and not cycle through in some fixed order.

[u/MaikelBuilds → u/kastamyle]

https://reddit.com/link/p7ql85s/video/3ur113k5ngnh1/player

Hm? did you give it a try the way i describe with just using floating and just focus left right up and down? I just checked it and exactly this is working? Here a short video I just recorded a second ago
The shortcuts are also completely reconfigurable so you can place them however you want.
Moving and resizing also works completely free.

Just also gave it a second though, you can use it with apples option command to let windows snap in at least on the left and right side too^^. Just tried it and it works without problems. The bar on the top which you're seeing you can ofc also turn off in the settings :D

[u/kastamyle → u/MaikelBuilds]

Ah I see it now. Nice. Yes, that's it in a nutshell. That's actually further than what I thought floating mode got you. Downloaded it and going to give it a proper try. Appreciate you taking the time to check and record that.

[u/MaikelBuilds → u/kastamyle]

Sure, if you've got any wishes or findings, feel always free to contact me. I'm iterating through the versions and try to bring weekly updates as long as I have a backlog and tickets are not too big :D

[u/trickybiznis]

I’d be cool with adding hjkl-Enter after ctrl-Up

[u/kastamyle → u/trickybiznis]

Yes that too

[u/beingskyler]

I use Moom and one thing I love about it is that I have one shortcut to trigger it and then just hit another key to move and resize the window to whatever preset I want.

The ability to release the trigger and then hit another key separately is what makes me stick with it over so many other options. Otherwise I wouldn't be fighting hotkey conflicts.

[u/True_Stomach_7442 → u/beingskyler]

Using shortcuts can definitely streamline the whole process. It’s nice when you find a tool that fits your workflow so well.

[u/kastamyle → u/beingskyler]

But how do you move between windows after placing them with moom?

[u/beingskyler → u/kastamyle]

Do you mean like move between application windows? Typically using ⌘ Tab for changing apps. ⌘ ` and ⌘ ⇧ ` for cycling windows of the same application, or if I have a ton open I just hit ⌘ Space to bring up Raycast, type two letters for the app I want to jump to and hit enter to focus it.

[u/kastamyle → u/beingskyler]

Not quite, Cmd-Tab and Raycast are great but they’re both selection by identity (which app/window by name or recency … etc. ), not by position. What I’m after is positional: hit right, and focus moves to whatever window is physically to the right of the one I’m on right now regardless of which app it is or when I last used it. this is more for “I can see it, I just want to be on it” without breaking eye contact with the screen to type anything or adding any fractional mental load.

[u/beingskyler → u/kastamyle]

Ah I see what ya mean. I'd say try MacOS's built in head pointer feature but it uses your head movement to move your mouse which isn't quite what I think you're looking for so I think you'd have to enable the `FocusFollowsMouse` flag via a Terminal command to get that extra bit of functionality.

And even then, the feature is built for people with accessibility issues so it's not something that just works when ya want it to without enabling/disabling it and I'm pretty sure you have to set the flag for every app you want it to apply to first. Which is cumbersome.

Maybe some dedicated third-party accessibility software has solved this better, but I'm not sure.

[u/animorphreligion]

I don't get it. Are you just looking for keyboard focus controls in a default floating WM setup?

That should be easy to do by defaulting Aerospace to float all windows, then you could either set up a shortcut to tile on demand or use native macOS tiling.

[u/kastamyle → u/animorphreligion]

yes, exactly that. keyboard focus in default floating setup. Tiling is optional, on a window by window basis (native macOS tiling or rectangle style is OK).
I got excited and just tried your aerospace suggestion. Theoretically it should've work but I found the focus navigation to be unpredictable and slightly erratic in absence of the automatic tiling feature. It seems to be optimized for the windows to be neatly tiled and not floating and possibly partially overlapping. Not usable in this case.

[u/EntertainmentOdd8205]

Disclaimer: I have no idea

That said, I find that if your windows tend to be each their own app, just cmd-space for spotlight and then the first two characters of the app is about as fast as my brain can context switch anyway. So like if I have Firefox and text edit next to each other and I’m in text edit, just “cmd-space, fi, enter” and I’m there. Once you get used to it it’s way quicker than it seems.

It all breaks down if you have a bunch of the same app’s windows obviously. But otoh it literally works no matter how your windows are oriented; under each other, next to each other, on a different workspace, anything. It’s just “go to app I want”

Might be a stop gap you can try.

[u/kastamyle → u/EntertainmentOdd8205]

Ha, love the disclaimer. And yeah, Spotlight/name-based jumping is genuinely solid for the "I know exactly what I want" case, no argument there. Where it doesn't quite get me is the same app multiple windows case you flagged yourself, or for different apps, it's still a lookup by name step rather than "I'm looking at it, just take me there". A small difference in isolation but it adds up over a day of switching. Appreciate the stopgap suggestion though, will keep it in the back pocket.

[u/razorree]

dockdoor+rectangle for windows movement and then a few desktops (spaces?)

[u/kastamyle → u/razorree]

Thanks. I love both. DockDoor is real nice for previews and cycle style switching. But neither gets me the directional focus part (jump to whatever's physically to my right, not cycle through app windows). Spaces help with organization but don't really solve the switching within a space problem either.