On which platform?

linux. Specifically nix or guix. It will probably be wayland and sway having used X and i3 before. I just didn't have a good config after moving away from regolith/ubuntu and I've not been annoyed enough to do anything about it yet, but I'm getting there.

Gotcha, I used i3 before rather successfully, but there's no match in Apple ecosystem, every system update breaks Yabai (the closest match)

i tried a tiling window manager some time ago and found windows were always the wrong size, so i gave up... probably i was doing it wrong - but how do you do it right?

@U0524B4UW short post I have found from the past on the Yabai and MacOS: 1. No more window dragging, opened app automatically fills up the space. 2. Moving between apps like vim: ctrl - [h j k l], Swapping applications using ctrl - shift [h j k l], etc. 3. Space assigned applications: when I open app, doesn't matter at which space I'm, it opens in the assigned space. 4. Moving between the apps is configurable and I have it using ctrl - n: • ctrl - 1: code - Emacs • ctrl - 2: web - Safari/Firefox/Edge • ctrl - 3: social - zulip/slack • ctrl - 4: mail • ctrl - 5: notes: emacs org • ctrl - 6: media: deezer/tidal/apple music Configuration is far simpler than I expected, although I need to do some digging before summing it all up. Also app opening shortcuts: • cmd - e: Emacs • cmd - shift - enter: terminal On the right side, there's Emacs GUI built without title-bar and to the left 2 terminal windows (Kitty terminal). Top left corner space indicators: code, web, social etc.

I'm on Sway and I'm absolutely loving it. Except for when I want to quickly connect to an external monitor to present something 😅 https://pop.system76.com/ recently impressed me. It's a user-friendly desktop manager (not window manager only) with tiling built in. But it's Ubuntu based, and I prefer Arch/Manjaro. Havn't learned enough Nix yet!

@U2HBNQQBE I'm regretful to hear that, I had high hopes for yabai. I'm generally tired of update management and configuration management, so it sucks that there's no good plug and play tilling manager, with minimal configuration and update upkeep, for MacOS (AFAIK)

@U2HBNQQBE i have 10 spaces attached to ctrl-<N> , and https://mizage.com/divvy/ (non-tiling) window manager keyboard shortcuts to size windows with no dragging ... keyboard shortcuts to move space left/right and ctrl-<N> muscle memory to jump to random spaces - i do have to choose which space apps open in, and i do have to hit they keyboard to size windows, but that's only once a reboot/login (whenever macos carks it, every couple of months) i'm generally pretty happy with this approach for 'static' apps (i.e. those which are commonly enough used that i've given them some real estate in a space). i think the principal thing a tiling window manager could help me with is sizing windows when i'm in a space with a few ad-hoc apps, e.g. right now i've got slack open in my comms space, and i've ad-hoc opened a browser window to check some links, but slack and the browser are now covering each other's content iirc when i tried a tiling window manager before (can't remember what i tried tho) i couldn't figure out how to give it free reign on the ad-hoc windows but tell it to respect my choices for my 'static' apps, and i often didn't like the choices it made

I currently use Rectangle for managing windows. Before, I used Spectacle. Just simple rearrangement, "put this in the top half when I hit these keys" etch

And I don't use Spaces, but I would really like to.

spaces used to be much better @U0AQ3HP9U - long ago apple gave you a square grid of spaces, then after apple took that away you could get get it back with https://totalspaces.binaryage.com/ - but nowadays you have to disable SIP to get totalspaces to work, and that seems like a really bad idea, so i had to learn to use a single row of spaces

(which is still good, but not as nice as a grid)

A single row of spaces can work for me, I think. For me, it's an issue of making them easily available (which is what I'd hoped yabai would do), but also... I tend to get lost in lots of open windows and processes, so I need whatever window manager or program that assists me to make it easy to set up and get around. And I need to learn how to organize things simply for myself.

as long as there are keyboard-shortcuts for the spaces @U0AQ3HP9U (which is entirely doable with the standard macos provisions) then a single row of spaces is workable... you get used to <ctrl-1> for email, <ctrl-2> for calendar, <ctrl-3> for socials &c&c quite quickly - i have 10 spaces all with their own type of app ... <ctrl-7> is emacs for code, either side of that at <ctrl-6> and <ctrl-8> are terminals and browsers for two different focus projects (with <cmd-←> and <cmd-→> for quick nav from emacs). occasionally, when my working patterns change, i add a space or delete a space

That's what I'm thinking - it doesn't have to be extremely complex.

I need workspaces and tiling

TBH I'm tempted to dive deep into Hammerspoon. Seems like there's so much you can do there, although you have to set it up yourself (or use someone else's code, if it fits or is close enough).

Attempting to use Spaces again. Have set up a Caps Lock to act as Esc or a Hyper key (Ctrl Alt Cmd Shift), then mapped Hyper 1 to Space 1, Hyper 2 to Space 2 etc

Much better than the outset, but will need more iteration, I think

i have caps-lock as <ctrl> (which makes a lot of sense for an emacs user on a macbook keyboard) and spaces on <ctrl-1>...<ctrl-0> ... has been working well for me for a couple of years

Yeah, I see 🙂

I'm hoping to make even more use of the Hyper key. Maybe put some otherwise straining, hard-to-reach, often used keys nearer home row. Like <>()[]/\{}# and maybe more. And/or remap often used functionality to work with the Hyper key and stuff around home row.

@U0524B4UW hope you have Esc on Caps Lock, too, if you use that somewhat regularly 🙂 I find it's murder on the hand to try and reach it from home row. But then, I do use it way more often than the average user, probably the average developer, too, being a Vim enthusiast.

@U0AQ3HP9U i almost never use ESC, except for the occasional time i vim on a remote terminal... if i was a vim user then i would probably have bound caps-lock to ESC rather than CTRL

My Spaces usage is not great so far, quite stumbly. Some programs move spaces if I restart them in one Space and then switch Space before it actually starts up. Teams is all over the place, but I've been warned of this and should try just using it in a browser window. Switching programs using CMD + tab can have surprising results when the same program is open in different Spaces.