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nikivi

I have a personal list of macOS apps I use that is similar & goes in detail in how I use the apps.

https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/my-mac-os

Karabiner specifically is life changing software.

At this point ALL keys on my keyboard are custom modifier keys. It's wild.

https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/dotfiles/blob/master/karab...

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Thank you very much for sharing. Using almost all of the tools you mention myself[^1]. But you give lots of new inspiration. And mention many new tools that I will explore.

Funny that today I started using SublimeText again for the exact same purpose you describe: Creating a wiki / knowledge base that is text based (markdown FTW), editing those markdown files, quickly jumping to files within nested folders (via Cmd+P = Goto anywhere). Was searching an alternative to `Quiver App` or `Dash App` to create a code snippet database / repository.

After I started using `iA Writer` for writing markdown, I realized how much better it is to move away from Evernote, Quiver or other proprietary writing apps to markdown (=plaintext) + folders. A little research later I narrowed down to: Emacs+Orgmode+Terminal or Vim+FZF+Ripgrep+Terminal. I realized that SublimeText gives me all the Ripgrep+FZF capabilities, and a decent markdown editor. (Still I love and use `iA Writer` for non-technical writing and SublimeText for all else.)

[^1]: Karabiner Elements, Alfred App, Keyboard Maestro and many more.

OMG, I skimmed over your mappings and macros.

The keyboard maestro and karabiner folks need to hire you to help them market their tools.

I thought I was pretty good with karabiner and KM. You... are a true power user!

> All the apps are in one desktop because there is delay in switching between macOS multiple desktops.

Huh, this is a weird one for me.

I believe there is a Terminal command to shorten the animation time which I've used, but other than that it would take more time for me to cycle through so many windows to find the one I want, than to just lay out task specific desktops and switch between them with Ctrl+Left/Right.

Not only that but I already am at a limit where I have so many windows in one of those (several Firefox windows, each with many tabs of stuff to read) where all of the windows become sluggish unless I move the one I'm trying to use to a less crowded desktop.

Did you do something to avoid this slowdown? How do you efficiently move between all those applications in a single desktop?

I avoid this slowdown by mapping every single app I use to a two key binding.

https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/dotfiles/blob/master/karab...

i.e. w+l opens VS Code. w+k opens Safari and so on. It's instant, no lag at all.

I also bind four finger swipes to open top apps with BetterTouchTool.

i.e. four finger swipe up opens Safari, swipe right = VS Code, swipe left = iTerm.

Wow! I'm definitely going to take some inspiration from this. IMO, this should've been the submission since it felt a lot more readable to me than the other list.

With the other list I got bored quite quick, but with this one I was able to read it for a lot longer. This was mostly due to the screenshots and the explanations of how you use it.

What do you do if you lose your data and have to start over? As far as I know, there is no way to automate the settings of all of these macOS apps that don't have config files that can be backed up like VSCode. Do you use Time Machine?

https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/backups

I back it up to Backblaze every 80 hours. And I am slowly moving my config files to Nix.

I will elaborate a bit more. You've taken the time to have this macOS set up configured exactly to your liking. All of these apps have settings and application data. Sometimes the application data and settings are synchronized in the cloud and sometimes they aren't. Maybe you use an app like Notes which has application data (your notes) that is synced to iCloud but application settings which reside somewhere on the computer locally. How do you handle situations like this? Do your back up solutions essentially allow you to back up the complete state of your computer so that if something happens you can restore it back to to the exact state you left it? What about upgrading macOS versions?

This is a puzzle I've struggled with both on macOS and iOS.

You might find this app useful. I plan to use it as I move to a new mac soon.

https://github.com/zenangst/Syncalicious

Yes! Thank you! I'll even see if I can help contribute.

Does iCloud iOS backup accomplish an exact sync for iPhone and iOS? I've never used it so I am not sure. If I use iCloud backup and I lose my phone, will an iCloud backup restore bring my phone back to exactly what it was like before?

Almost.

Some things (e.g. Photo library tagging) doesn't get included in the backup, and all your photos need to be re-processed by the new device.

I'm still forming my backup strategy. In your particular usecase, it's a bit clunky, but I'd use Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac and make monthly backups.

Check out mackup https://github.com/lra/mackup

FWIW I tried Mackup for a few days to try and sync prefs between two macOS machines, and it broke more than it fixed. Many applications don't like having their preferences files symlinked or preferences changed while they're running.

Personally I just do time machine over the air. You just need to setup a Netatalk server with mdns on a raspberry pi or any other spare computer and that’s it.

Now I’m trying to sort out how to push backups over vpn since it’s not identifying the drive correctly, but when I’m home it’s flawless.

They all have to be saved somewhere. A lot of Mac only apps also use the defaults[0] system which allows you to read/write values there.

  man defaults
  defaults domains | tr " " "\n"
  defaults read com.apple.Safari

For dot files, I personally use stow[1] but there are other utilities and workflows out there[2].

  [0] https://ss64.com/osx/defaults.html
  [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/
  [2] https://dotfiles.github.io/

Note that, at least as of 10.14 (Mojave), lots of built-in macOS preferences do not like their settings to be changed this way. For example, you can use `defaults` to change preferences for the trackpad to your heart's content, but they won't take effect immediately because IOKit (I think) has a shadow copy of the preferences that is much harder to modify. The pref pane for the trackpad ends up changing both the plist and the IOKit prefs to make preference changes take effect immediately.

If you use a lot of `defaults` commands, you'll want to reboot immediately afterwards.

Great list!

Found a couple of gems that I didn't know existed.

Another shout-out for Karabiner. It's amazing.

I was using Linux primarily, but recently switched fully to MacOS. With an IBM Model-M keyboard (old-school, missing the Apple/Window keys), I wouldn't be able to live without Karabiner.

> IBM Model-M keyboard

I hope you work in a sound proof room.

Working remotely from home. But I used to have one at the office when we had one, and nobody complained. Although they were entertained by the artifact of years gone by.

Unicomp makes (modifies?) Model-M type keybaords that are Mac-ish; I've got a Command and Option Key, the F keys do the same thing as the ones on the Mac (change volume, brightness, etc.). I love it.

Tell, me, how do you connect your Model-M to the Mac? I bought this from Unicomp because IIRC just adding a USB adapter to the three Model-M's in my closet didn't work out.

you can live/work without a clipboard manager :O ?!

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