Redcar is cool, but I still can’t use Linux
lucasrockwell.com
lucasrockwell.com
All of that being said, there's no difference between using the Apple key for commands vs. other key combos (ctrl-alt-shift, etc) it's simply user preference.
If you take this argument down to it's base level, it's a frustration at having to learn the UI of a new program, the equivalent of Vim vs Emacs. All of that is fine, but burying that sentiment in a general "only Mac software can do this" post which isn't the case.
All of this being said, it's looking more and more like Textmate development is dead, perhaps it's time to look at one of the alternatives?
Of course this isn't universally true, but OS X does seem to do it better than the other two.
But, key bindings are hardly OS dependent, rendering the general point of this post irrelevant. It would be really interesting to see this transformed into a rant against a lack of uniform standards for standard functions.
My biggest gripe is that the home and end keys don't work as I expect anymore. In Ubuntu (and windows afaik), the home and end keys work in pretty much every app (terminal, editor, browser and pretty much any text field) for moving to the start/end of the current line.
One of the other frustrations, which isn't entirely OSX's fault.. is that the shortcuts in my editor of choice (jEdit) sometimes use command and sometimes use ctrl.
I'm not trying to criticize any OS in particular.. but I've personally found it incredibly frustrating. I admit it's probably just because of keyboard shortcuts I've used for years are etched into my muscle memory.
I can definitely appreciate that switching in the other direction is equally as frustrating.
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/Cocoa%20Text%20System....
It's my 2nd year on the Mac and I continue to struggle with hotkeys: they are a mess.
On top of my head: how come Ctrl+left won't bring me to the end of the line in Terminal but does in every other editable window? And why Shift+Command+arrows switch tabs in Terminal but not in Safari? OSX doesn't even have a universal "close this goddamn window" hot key, which drives me crazy - some windows go away with Esc while others need Command+W, plus you get a super weird 3rd variety which can't be closed from the keyboard at all!
OSX is by far the least typist friendly GUI in my humble opinion. On the other hand Linux, especially Gnome, absolutely rocks with their handling of hot keys: there are many more of them (I can move/resize windows on a keyboard) and the bindings are very consistent. Whereas OSX is simply not usable without a mouse: even top-level menu items don't have hot keys, like Alt+E for "Edit" or Alt+F for "File".
I too am annoyed by those windows that require Esc to go away, like the font chooser, as I expect Cmd-W to work univerally for that. I found some AppleScripts somewhere that can be used to move/resize windows with the keyboard, but haven't tried them out yet, but that's also something I wish OS X could do out of box. Moving/resizing windows in OS X is really inefficient, and apps aren't very efficient about new window placement.
I use Cmd-Shift-{ and Cmd-Shift-} to switch tabs which appears to what's been standardized on, but just tried Cmd-Shift-arrows and it works in both Terminal and Safari (using Leopard) but not Firefox.
I find you have to memorize a lot more to be efficient with OS X's hot keys, due to the lack of mnemonics.
Nope.
I could write a long point-by-point response to this post, but realized that I already did several months ago:
http://zentu.net/oss/?q=node/27
It's the concept of multiple desktops that Windows doesn't have and OSX doesn't get, either, that makes working on Linux systems so worth it. Productivity can be dependent upon how you organize and switch between these desktops.
My last computer was loaded with Ubuntu. There are so many annoying differences between the two operating systems. I grumble, but I don't write a caustic article about them because I expect these difference to occur. These OSes have completely separate histories and were built by completely different people. There is no universally perfect computer interface.
I think this article is akin to complaining about the differences in the shifting pattern on Honda and BMW cars.
EDIT: spelling and grammar
There is also Alt, and Meta, and you can set your own keymaps in X.
Actually, one of the reasons I didn't like the mac is the lack of flexibility in this area (like re-mapping ctrl and caps lock). Doable but not as simple as in Linux.
Cocoa by default already has some of the Emacs-style keyboard shortcuts (CTRL-A/E/P/N/B/F/K/T/Y/etc), and these are partially supported in Firefox 3.0. And it looks like remapping keys for Cocoa apps is very flexible and powerful, but I haven't messed with it personally yet (though I plan to try to get things even more Emacs-like, which appears to be pretty doable).
Of course you can't beat the flexibility that's achievable in the open source desktops/window managers.
If for some reason he really is determined to make this conversion (without changing his keyboard shortcuts) then he is welcome to start a Linux keyboard shortcut unification project, since as the cliche goes, the source is there.
I bought a mac last year spent like 1600USD on it... and is there... I still use my Linux laptop. The mac hardware is pretty cool but I feel so unproductive on it.
btw, I use VIM (in OS X, Linux and Windows)