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macOS Sequoia: How Window Tiling and Snapping Currently Works
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I think the advantage of window snapping greatly depends on what you do with your Mac and how you're trying to accomplish it.
The larger your screen is, the more windows you can use side by side and the more folders are involved in your daily work, the more useful window snapping will be.
When you're a desktop publisher, chances are higher you like window snapping versus someone who hardly ever uses more than two windows at the same time.
Snapping to half or quarter screen is, imho, only nice for the clean Finder view, but doesn't add that much functionality.
Being able to set a custom grid + shortcuts is, for those who want it, way more powerful.
I tried a lot of 'screen snappers' and prefer Moisaic (the original version from Lightpillar, not rcopstein who tried to highjack the name). I like Mosaic better because it is highly customisable, has a 'gutter' option that you can even adjust.
I used an older app for this, since about 2008 but the dev stopped updating it to newer versions of macOS and I can't remember the name. It had a nice extra: you could move the selected window, pixel by pixel.
Window snapping/tiling was there quite a long time ago in Linux, in Openbox, one of the oldest window managers, which was created by Dana Jensens in 2002, 21 years ago. She was still doing her PhD in computer science then.
Using Sequoia window tiling right now with success on the 15" MBP screen!
Try Sequoia and see how it goes. 😊
Linux is non-commercial. They can copy anything they want from commercial systems but on the downside of that they can't easily protect ideas that began on their platform. In order to protect IP they have to demonstrate financial damage.
Well, I understand that you know Linux, and Unix. 👌
IBM bought Redhat, a Linux company in July 2019 for approx. USD 34 billion.
Regarding Sequoia Window Tiling, if you open one window tiled to left for example, then pulled it right for it to take, say, 2/3 of the screen, the other window you tile to right would only take the rest of the screen. With the space in between the tiled windows look pretty nice on my 15" MBP screen. They are floating on the screen.
Most importantly, I can get my work done without an external monitor.
Most importantly, I can get my work done without an external monitor.
In other words, with tiling, Apple is copying Microsoft again, just like Apple copied flat design from Microsoft.
When Steve Jobs was CEO, Microsoft copied Apple. But since Tim Cook became CEO, Apple copies Microsoft. That goes to show how clueless and mediocre Cook is.
Tabs only help reduce opening new windows but you cannot compare files between tabs. And it's fiddly to drag files between. - Again, FTP clients had figured this out decades ago.
Looking forward to this feature since it is something I will use. Not all the time but I've wished for something like this for a long time.
Have been using Cinch for more than 10 years after buying it once for $5. One of the best investment. You just drag the window on either side and it will occupy half the screen. Drag it to the top, it will be full screen size. Simple, yet productive. It is so strange that it took this long for apple to implement this. And for them to taut as a very new feature is even more weird.
I’ve also been a Mac user since System 7 (and even remember helping friends on Mac’s that ran System 6) and I’m lost without Magnet. I love it. Whenever I’m on someone’s else’s Mac I find my self instinctively hitting Magnet shortcuts to arrange windows. Of course you can still make windows any size you want. I don’t see how anything is being forced on anyone?
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Could also be nice from a UX point of view… not just looks. Like, one thing that drives me crazy with Magnet is that I have hiding enabled for my dock and when I use a shortcut to resize a window to say, half the screen, it’s bottom edge is RIGHT up to the very last pixel so if I then want to use something at the bottom of the window (like clicking in the breadcrumb in the block editor in Wordpress as a very specific example) I am and FOREVER accidentally triggering the dock to pop into view.
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Exactly. I have a 34” ultra wide curved display (it’s huge) and I do website development. I always have two or even 3 windows open side-by-side… code + preview or code + preview + dev tools… etc. I actually hate the snapping or magnet (I disable it) but I LOVE the keyboard shortcuts to quickly size two windows to half and half or whatever.
Give it about 15 years, I'm sure they'll add that lol.
I agree, larger screens could take advantage of more tiles.
I have the following Window Snapping bug w. Sequoia 15.0:
When I drag newly launched Finder windows (the Passwords app is another example), that open non-maximized, up to the global menu bar (to be exact: the upper screen edge) to maximize them, sometimes the snapping animation and fails and the window doesn‘t maximize.
This happens only with newly launched windows and only on the first try. It drives me insane. Can you reproduce?
By the way: The overlaying „upper screen edge gestures“ (1. maximize window, 2. Mission Control) generally are an exercise in frustration.
/edit: I now have an explanation for this strange behavior. When dragging a window up to the upper screen edge to maximize it, with the Sequoia native tiling implementation you have to drag exactly vertically upwards. When moving a few pixels left or right or when dragging slightly diagonally, the gesture is cancelled.
When I drag newly launched Finder windows (the Passwords app is another example), that open non-maximized, up to the global menu bar (to be exact: the upper screen edge) to maximize them, sometimes the snapping animation and fails and the window doesn‘t maximize.
This happens only with newly launched windows and only on the first try. It drives me insane. Can you reproduce?
By the way: The overlaying „upper screen edge gestures“ (1. maximize window, 2. Mission Control) generally are an exercise in frustration.
/edit: I now have an explanation for this strange behavior. When dragging a window up to the upper screen edge to maximize it, with the Sequoia native tiling implementation you have to drag exactly vertically upwards. When moving a few pixels left or right or when dragging slightly diagonally, the gesture is cancelled.
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Can't activate tiless. I have tried different resolutions, unplugged Second display. Is it because I'm EU resident? I would appreciate help.
Hover over the green dot on the top left, choose on elf the icons, once the window moves to the chosen side, move it using the top side of the window to any side of your screen, it'd snap to that side.
