Comment by corrral | Hacker News Reader

Comment by corrral | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah, my macOS set-up is simple enough it's not worth scripting or otherwise saving.

Use the GUI settings panel to make CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl. Takes maybe 10 seconds.

Use same to make dock auto-hide. 10 seconds if I'm slow about it.

Install Homebrew. Maybe 15 seconds hands-on and a couple minutes in the background.

Use Homebrew to install spectacle. Less than 5 seconds hands-on time, done less than a minute later.

Start Spectacle and use its preferences panel to set it to start on boot. Maybe 15 seconds.

Remove all the pinned programs on the dock. 60-90 seconds.

The last one's the only part I've considered scripting, but since I only do it once every couple years at most, it's not really worth it.

Once I'm past a Mac's initial "welcome to Mac" flow and on the actual desktop, I'm only about 5 minutes (not all of it actively doing things) from having a comfortable environment set up and being all ready to install project-specific tools, as needed.

If I ever switch back to Linux (or FreeBSD, which is more likely at this point) I might go back to versioning and backing up a bunch of config and dot files. I need them, there.

> Use same to make dock auto-hide

Cmd-Opt-D to toggle auto-hiding – I use this one to check if the dock is frozen :)

(Also a great option to rebind: it's a global hotkey so no other app should be using it)

Ha, I hit this by accident a couple times a year, then have to fix it in settings because I can never remember what the combo is.

Just as a sidenote, because I was using Spectacle as well. JFYI: As it is no longer maintained, I switched to Rectangle (https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle) and can highly recommend it.

Yeah, I'm just putting off switching because Spectacle still works, and has never broken or even behaved in a way that seemed weird or less than ideal, even across multiple monitors, with changing screen situations (hiding/un-hiding the dock), et c. It is one of the very few pieces of software I run that has given me precisely zero problems of any kind. Ain't broke, don't fix it, and all that.

> CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl

Another fine specimen, salute!

If it was ESC instead you'd get a +1. ;)

Mine just does nothing.

What if I told you that you can have both? For me it's ctrl when I hold it down and use it with another key and esc when I press it briefly. Can be set up on a Mac with Karabiner Elements.

If you told me that, I'd give you the +1. But Karabiner Elements doesn't work on my Arch box.

I have a udev rule that does the ESC mapping, but will have to try harder to see if I can make it do that on Linux.

https://github.com/oblitum/caps2esc

Why not Command instead of Ctrl? Isn't that something that you use way more often?

I'm not that commenter but ctrl is my least favourite regularly used key to hit. It's not comfortable to reach with either my pinky or thumb. Command is basically where my thumb rests naturally, it's in prime position.

Yep, cmd is great where it is. If I compare cmd-shortcuts with identical ctrl-shortcuts, with normal key mapping, the ctrl ones strain my hand and pull my fingers away from the home row. The same cmd-based shortcuts do neither of those things. It's one thing Apple got very right, that everyone else is getting wrong.

Because I go used to use Emacs binding while on the terminal and VIM bindings for everything else. Ctrl + [ instead of ESC to change modes for me :D

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