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0 pointspweissbrod11y ago0 comments

Thats a great list thank you! I never heard of i3wm I promise to read the docs.

Yes, microsoft windows. I use version 8.1 and while most end users loathe the interface I've studied the "windows" key and "context menu" key and found it quite fast to perform all my daily operations (except web browsing) mouse-free.

My experience with linux is that some programs are great but too many dont follow standard on very common keyboard operations such as search, tab navigation, context menu. Also it seems many of these desktop windows managers such as ratpoison come with default key mappings that conflict with many of my application's default key mappings which forces me to re-configure.

I invested some time customizing key mappings that would alleviate the issues, but I have a large stack of actual programming work I need to get to, and after awhile I just felt like I was trying too hard at it and decided to go back to the system that works for me. I would like to learn a little more about developer's mouse-free success with linux, vim, browsers and ides such as intellij. 2 years back when i researched this it didnt seem like a very important issue to many people, but to me the little bits of speed gained from keyboard shortcuts add up into great savings in time and cuts in repetitive movement and I consider it to be a crucial part of any development system.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

Rampoina11y ago· 2 in thread

I use awesome WM and I didn't need to customize any of the keyboard shortcuts; it uses the windows key as the modifier key and as far as I know no other program uses it.

Also I don't get how the Windows 8.1 window management comes even close to the 2 programs you mentioned (Ratpoison and Awesome WM). With both of those (or any other tiling manager) you can do much more than just maximize and snap a window to the sides. (you have virtual workspaces, automatic tiling, better switching, etc)

pweissbrodOP11y ago

Maybe I need to invest a little more time into it. I agree with you that the docking keyboard shortcuts are far less powerful in windows. In practice however, this limitation doesnt really become an issue for me. Maybe it is because I have tunnel vision but 2 programs per monitor with a quick means of switching things around hasnt left me wishing I could have 3,4+ programs per monitor

rakoo11y ago

I must admit I stopped my knowledge of Windows at Windows 7, which already has some tiling thingies but nothing even remotely close to the WMs I linked to earlier.

The thing that is the most visible to me is virtual workspaces. It allows you to create fixed layouts of programs (editor on the left, terminal to test on the up-right corner and tail -f of the relevant log on the down-right corner) grouped within a user-defined context ("code on project1", "code on project2", "mail", "browser").

The idea is to switch from activity to activity, rather than from application to application. It's extremely important, because when you start piling up activities, you accumulate applications, and you don't want to switch through all of them within your activity.

aerique11y ago

I think serious Linux users going for mouse-free and / or using tiling window managers designate one of the Windows / menu / command / Apple keys as "window manager" key as well.

It's nice though that MS made this a default for Windows, while Linux still wants to ignore that MS ever managed to get those keys added to the keyboard. I've been using them for years, one as wm-key and the other as compose key to be able to write special characters (ë, ø, €, etc.) easily on a default qwerty keyboard. That still leaves one spare key on most keyboards

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