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0 pointszapzupnz7y ago0 comments

> One of the things I miss the most are the consistent, universal and wide-ranging keyboard shortcuts.

I actually find that's what I miss when I use Windows. Windows' universal keyboard shortcuts seem to be limited to window management and some basics like new files, save, cut, copy, paste, etc.

On the other hand, just about every macOS has the same shortcuts for actions within applications as opposed to without. For items without shortcuts, you can define your own quickly and easily in System Preferences, and those custom shortcuts can apply to just one app or every app.

Not only that, every macOS app puts the shortcuts in the same place, the menu bar. They're all searchable via the Help menu. On Windows, there are more often than not keyboard shortcuts that aren't listed in any menus, so one would have no idea what they are without looking them up. Further, because Windows software tends to be developed in any ol' framework with any ol' user interface, lacking in any consistency, quite a lot of programs don't even implement the standard, universal shortcuts.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

int_19h7y ago· 4 in thread

All the things that you list about Windows apps are deficiencies of the modern era of UX design. UX apps of Win98 era were much more consistent, and especially the rule that all commands and shortcuts must be in the main menu was usually adhered to, at least by apps that respected the official platform design guidelines.

The idea of a drop-down main menu with all commands comes from CUA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access#Descrip...

mjevans7y ago

They were also self-documenting and training. Do an action and while you're doing it, right there next to the description of the action, is how to do it quickly.

If you realized that, were doing the same thing frequently, and used the keyboard action after the first couple times you learned the memory of how to do it the quick way.

zapzupnzOP7y ago

> All the things that you list about Windows apps are deficiencies of the modern era of UX design

I was going to say "not on macOS, they aren't" because this isn't true for any apps that use Cocoa or Carbon (which is to say, all of them). The only apps that exhibit any weirdness are ones that use cross-platform frameworks like Qt, GTK+, or wxWidgets.

But nowadays, there are loads of Electron and React Native apps that don't even present anything in the global menu bar; if the developers don't think to add them in themselves, basic functions like copy and paste don't work without secondary clicking!

wolrah7y ago

> UX apps of Win98 era were much more consistent

Counterpoint: 99.5% of everything ever created with Visual Basic.

int_19h7y ago

99.5% of everything ever created with VB is probably line-of-business apps. Which is to say, most users would only be exposed to 1 or 2 such app, usually at work.

yoz-y7y ago

The one thing I miss from windows is that alt access to the menu. While search menu is great when I don't know what I am looking for, using alt menu and then a chord to access features was great and less painful than some of the macOS shortcuts that require three modifier keys at the same time.

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