I've been using Amethyst for the last two weeks, the shortcuts are starting to click, and I'm really enjoying it. No affiliation, just a happy developer who has found it's helped with my workflow...
I've been using Amethyst for the last two weeks, the shortcuts are starting to click, and I'm really enjoying it. No affiliation, just a happy developer who has found it's helped with my workflow lately.
Amethyst is kind of like i3wm, but that's my characterization. There is an alternative, yabai, which more faithfully represents i3wm. I was hesitant to using yabai as it required disablling OS integrity checks, whereas Amethyst just requires standard accessibility permissions.
A couple tips I've used:
The odd app won't play nice with it, so just blacklist those from being window managed (or you can whitelist only apps you want).
I bound an iTerm global hotkey to create a new terminal to option + shift + x. This is actually a workaround for a bug, because iTerm's spawnnig of a terminal via global hotkey does not trigger reflow automatically. But to force a reflow from Amethyst is option + shift + z, so it's easy to do option + shift + x, then lift up the 'x' finger and hit 'z', triggering a near-instant reflow.
Using Chrome in --app mode for browsing, for example, chrome --app=https://news.ycombinator.com/active. It spawns a borderless window, no tabs or address bar, but great if you just want a distraction free browser for a specific URL. For example, I had the Amethyst cheatsheat up there a bit earlier.
How about you folks? Anyone use Amethyst or other window managers? Any general tips?
You don't need to disable SIP entirely for Yabai. I tried the others, Amethyst included, but ultimately stuck with Yabai. Its so good --- still not i3, but its well worth disabling SIP for :)
Thanks for the correction! Maybe I should give Yabai a closer look. Did you install without disabling SIP? Was the feature-set still largely usable, like on-par with Amethyst? II see they list the...
Thanks for the correction! Maybe I should give Yabai a closer look.
Did you install without disabling SIP? Was the feature-set still largely usable, like on-par with Amethyst? II see they list the following features as only working if you disable SIP, but reading between the lines, it seems largely functioinal?
focus/create/destroy space without animation
move space (and its windows) left, right or to another display
remove window shadows
enable window transparency
control window layers (make windows appear topmost)
sticky windows (make windows appear on all spaces)
move window by clicking anywhere in its frame
toggle picture-in-picture for any given window
border for focused and inactive windows
Or if you did disable SIP, has it been stable?
Yabai did seem to have a slightly more active community, I just noped outta there 'cause of SIP, figured it was a risk of Amethyst was sufficient.
I think I had SIP enabled on this system for about three days... and this is a late 2013 :) But yeah, its been pretty good. I'm so used to it that I don't even think about it. I mapped CAPS to...
I think I had SIP enabled on this system for about three days... and this is a late 2013 :)
But yeah, its been pretty good. I'm so used to it that I don't even think about it. I mapped CAPS to HYPER using Karabiner and use HYPER+D to pull up Alfred as a cheap dmenu. I use HYPER+arrows to navigate, ctrl+shift+alt-arrow to resize, and ctrl+alt-arrow to move windows around. Nothing crazy. I've used the stacking a few times, but don't really need it.
Some folks are concerned about the SIP side of things, but I have full access with my other OSs and never seem to have any issues.
The only issue I've had with Yabai is that sometimes on boot I need to reload the service --- but that's about it. Once its running its been rock solid from the get-go.
I've always been tempted to pick one up, but I know that I'd also have to convince work to allow it or else my eventual muscle memory will be killing me for 1/3 of my day. For now I'm just...
I've always been tempted to pick one up, but I know that I'd also have to convince work to allow it or else my eventual muscle memory will be killing me for 1/3 of my day. For now I'm just sticking to Rectangle (the FOSS continuation of Spectacle), which of course isn't an actual tiling window manager, but it at least allows more tiling than macOS wants you to do by default (apparently all free form).
Maybe I should just bite the bullet and ask them if it's cool or not.
I've been using Amethyst for the last two weeks, the shortcuts are starting to click, and I'm really enjoying it. No affiliation, just a happy developer who has found it's helped with my workflow lately.
Amethyst is kind of like i3wm, but that's my characterization. There is an alternative, yabai, which more faithfully represents i3wm. I was hesitant to using yabai as it required disablling OS integrity checks, whereas Amethyst just requires standard accessibility permissions.
A couple tips I've used:
option + shift + x. This is actually a workaround for a bug, because iTerm's spawnnig of a terminal via global hotkey does not trigger reflow automatically. But to force a reflow from Amethyst isoption + shift + z, so it's easy to dooption + shift + x, then lift up the 'x' finger and hit 'z', triggering a near-instant reflow.--appmode for browsing, for example,chrome --app=https://news.ycombinator.com/active. It spawns a borderless window, no tabs or address bar, but great if you just want a distraction free browser for a specific URL. For example, I had the Amethyst cheatsheat up there a bit earlier.How about you folks? Anyone use Amethyst or other window managers? Any general tips?
You don't need to disable SIP entirely for Yabai.
I tried the others, Amethyst included, but ultimately stuck with Yabai. Its so good --- still not i3, but its well worth disabling SIP for :)
Thanks for the correction! Maybe I should give Yabai a closer look.
Did you install without disabling SIP? Was the feature-set still largely usable, like on-par with Amethyst? II see they list the following features as only working if you disable SIP, but reading between the lines, it seems largely functioinal?
Or if you did disable SIP, has it been stable?
Yabai did seem to have a slightly more active community, I just noped outta there 'cause of SIP, figured it was a risk of Amethyst was sufficient.
I think I had SIP enabled on this system for about three days... and this is a late 2013 :)
But yeah, its been pretty good. I'm so used to it that I don't even think about it. I mapped CAPS to HYPER using Karabiner and use HYPER+D to pull up Alfred as a cheap dmenu. I use HYPER+arrows to navigate, ctrl+shift+alt-arrow to resize, and ctrl+alt-arrow to move windows around. Nothing crazy. I've used the stacking a few times, but don't really need it.
Some folks are concerned about the SIP side of things, but I have full access with my other OSs and never seem to have any issues.
The only issue I've had with Yabai is that sometimes on boot I need to reload the service --- but that's about it. Once its running its been rock solid from the get-go.
I've always been tempted to pick one up, but I know that I'd also have to convince work to allow it or else my eventual muscle memory will be killing me for 1/3 of my day. For now I'm just sticking to Rectangle (the FOSS continuation of Spectacle), which of course isn't an actual tiling window manager, but it at least allows more tiling than macOS wants you to do by default (apparently all free form).
Maybe I should just bite the bullet and ask them if it's cool or not.