Subject: Re: [Witch Talk] three problems with Cycle Apps > Windows in Witch 4 beta

From: Shoshanna <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2017 16:56:33 -0800 (PST)

Oh, huzzah! Thank you, that's great news.

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From: Rob Griffiths <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2017 17:29:52 -0800

On Jan 1, 2017, at 11:10 AM, Shoshanna Green <[email-masked]> wrote:

> KM can check for the existence of a window whose name it knows something about; but witchdaemon.app's window has no name. So KM can't check for it.

That was our mistake ... the next beta will have a name for the Witch switcher window.

regards;
-rob.

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From: Rob Griffiths <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2017 18:43:31 -0800

On Jan 1, 2017, at 11:10 AM, Shoshanna Green <[email-masked]> wrote:

> The first is just that it happens too quickly! Often I'm still scanning the list of applications for the one I want to switch to, when all of a sudden Witch dumps me into the list of windows of whichever app was selected in the switcher at that moment. I want it to wait until I invoke that drilling down into windows myself, with the down arrow (I cycle apps in a horizontal list,

We'll address this in an upcoming beta update.

> witcher also appears, at the same time. So they're both on the screen. I haven't been able to pin down exactly what triggers this; mostly I just go AGH and hit escape or something to get out of the mess and start over...)

If you happen to see what triggers it for certain, please let us know.

> because the preceding list of apps was horizontal. But I prefer to have Witch's lists of windows appear vertically, so I can see all the filenames and more easily find the one I want; the icons of files belonging to a given application generally look alike. I think that lists of windows that appear by drilling down from the app switcher should appear in the same way that lists of windows invoked directly do; the user has already said "I want window lists to appear vertically" or "...to appear horizontally," and that should be honored no matter how the window list is summoned.

We won't be able to do this for Witch 4, as it will require replacing the Witch rendering engine, which we can't easily do. (That is, it's a major rework effort.) But it is on our list for the future.

> something together by scanning running processes to see whether "witchdaemon" has a window -- but that seems likely to be slow and inelegant. Can you, by any chance, think of any simpler way for KM to know that Witch has been triggered? If witchdaemon.app's

Let me ask Peter.

> All this said, I love Witch and could not work a quarter so efficiently without it; I've been singing its praises for coming up on a decade now. Thanks for continuing to improve it!

Thanks! I'll pass your kind words on to Peter, Many Tricks' founder and programmer extraordinaire!

-rob.

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From: "Shoshanna Green" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 14:10:34 -0500

Hi!

I really like the basic idea of being able to switch apps and then drill 
down into the selected app's windows with a single invocation of Witch, 
but the way it currently functions presents some problems for me.

The first is just that it happens too quickly! Often I'm still scanning 
the list of applications for the one I want to switch to, when all of a 
sudden Witch dumps me into the list of windows of whichever app was 
selected in the switcher at that moment. I want it to wait until I 
invoke that drilling down into windows myself, with the down arrow (I 
cycle apps in a horizontal list, like the native OS switcher). If it 
must be auto-invoked, which is definitely not my preference, I'd like 
the delay to be longer -- which suggests that it should be 
user-adjustable, since presumably some people like the current 2 seconds 
and would dislike waiting longer.

(Also, when Witch automatically drills down into the window list after 2 
seconds, I find that sometimes the native OS application switcher also 
appears, at the same time. So they're both on the screen. I haven't been 
able to pin down exactly what triggers this; mostly I just go AGH and 
hit escape or something to get out of the mess and start over...)

The second is that when Witch does drill down into the windows of the 
selected app, those windows also appear in a horizontal list, because 
the preceding list of apps was horizontal. But I prefer to have Witch's 
lists of windows appear vertically, so I can see all the filenames and 
more easily find the one I want; the icons of files belonging to a given 
application generally look alike. I think that lists of windows that 
appear by drilling down from the app switcher should appear in the same 
way that lists of windows invoked directly do; the user has already said 
"I want window lists to appear vertically" or "...to appear 
horizontally," and that should be honored no matter how the window list 
is summoned.

And I have a third difficulty that's a bit more complex. I'm a heavy 
user of Keyboard Maestro, and I have macros bound to command-arrow, 
option-arrow, and control-arrow keys. When I invoke Witch with 
command-tab, option-tab, or control-tab, and then try to navigate around 
its window and app lists by releasing the tab key and hitting an arrow, 
the corresponding macros get triggered. I can develop ways to avoid this 
collision if I can find ways for Keyboard Maestro to be aware that Witch 
has been triggered and is active, has its switcher window popped up, but 
this is difficult.

KM can check for the existence of a window whose name it knows something 
about; but witchdaemon.app's window has no name. So KM can't check for 
it.

System Events can see that witchdaemon.app is running and has either no 
windows or one nameless window, so I may be able to kludge something 
together by scanning running processes to see whether "witchdaemon" has 
a window -- but that seems likely to be slow and inelegant. Can you, by 
any chance, think of any simpler way for KM to know that Witch has been 
triggered? If witchdaemon.app's window had a name that System Events 
(and thus KM) could see, for instance, even if that name were entirely 
invisible and irrelevant to the end user, my life would be easier; but 
there might be other solutions I'm not thinking of. So I toss that out 
there in hopes that someone might suggest a solution!

All this said, I love Witch and could not work a quarter so efficiently 
without it; I've been singing its praises for coming up on a decade now. 
Thanks for continuing to improve it!

Shoshanna Green
[email-masked]