It doesn't solve all the problems in this post, but if you are trying to find an open window I think it's the fastest way. Expose is chaos if you've got a lot of windows open.
Hi HN, this is my OS X window management application and it's got some unique features I thought fellow hackers would enjoy: the latest update adds tab browsing for Safari, Google Chrome and Terminal, combining this with 'type to search' makes for really fast window and tab switching. Watch the screencast to see what I mean.
Developing a OS X window manager is risky business, Apple could wipe it out at any time and Lion's certainly got some really nice features with Mission Control. But I reckon Optimal Layout's still going to appeal to keyboarders, what do you think?
This was my lunch time reading for many months whilst doing contract web development. I was working with the most offensive tech lead I've ever met, but he was also incredibly effective.
Ludicrous link bait headline and tabloid trash article from The Register.
Apple didn't copy the app, it sound like they were maintaining control of their interests; no one should be surprised by that given Apple's track record.
That's not to say Apple haven't copied others apps, they've positively trampled on a slew of third party apps with enhancements in Lion and IOS 5, but that's all part of the game at this point.
I'll share some numbers: I've got three utilities in the Mac App Store, two currently free: WindowFlow[1] & Window Keys[2], and one paid: Optimal Layout[3].
Firstly, from what I've seen, only the US store really matters for paid apps. I've seen very low numbers move Optimal Layout to close to the top of the category: e.g 5 sales in Canada placed it at #5 in the top paid utilities.
In the US Optimal Layout hit #4 in the top paid utilities and #40 top paid overall with 82 units sold in a day.
For the free apps, WindowFlow was the best performer getting the most downloads in Japan & France (for some reason) hitting the number 1 spot in both store with about 700 downloads a day.
Neither of these translated into many sales for Optimal Layout, but it was just great to have lots of people trying out the apps.
So overall it's not a big market yet, being a part of bundle like MacUpdate or MacHeist delivers access to a much bigger market (40,000+ in 2 weeks) but it's relatively steady and only going to get bigger.
I'll revive my blog soon and post a more detailed analysis of how I see it playing out.
There are loads of great resources out there for learning Cocoa for Mac development but because Xcode 4 is so new you aren't going to find much aside from Apple's own documentation.
It's still in development and has just been updated to cover Xcode 4. I've been reading the previous edition and it's brilliant: great writing and the first half of the book is applicable to both iOS and desktop Cocoa development. As a relatively new Mac developer (1-2 years) this really consolidated my knowledge of Apple's frameworks and Objective-C.
Working alone from home I've found myself enjoying playing with the kids toys during a break. Last year I played a lot of swing-ball (or totem-tennis as it's also known), I recently picked up a trampoline which is great fun and incredibly energizing.
Mac Developers might like to take a look at my project: Optimal Layout. It gives you very flexible keyboard commands to control windows as well as a window switcher:
It includes an option to re-arrange a whole group of windows in one go with window tiling and I've got an update coming in the next week to make this process much simpler and more customizable.
I'm working on an app to make window management as easy as possible: http://windowflow.com
It's about to relaunch with a significantly improved UI and more flexible tiling methods, so check back in a week if you don't like what you see now. Any feedback is appreciated.