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Comment by dizzystar | Hacker News Reader

My biggest irritation with MacOS is CMD-Tab back to Finder breaks constantly.

Then the terminal short cuts are bound to CTL, and at least on my Macbook Pro, CTL is only on one side. I also don't like how Return is "change a file name" instead of "run a file." There are so many things that are inconsistent with other OS's, that I guess it just comes down to what you are used to.

I've found that MacOS is much more touch-pad / mouse heavy than other OS's. For example, CTL-K is awesome for browsing through a Linux folder system. This would put you in the path area, so you can sort of use it like a terminal.

Browsing finder in MacOS is painful, click here, click there, hope you don't get lost, etc.

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> at least on my Macbook Pro, CTL is only on one side

This is standard for modern Macs; that said, one of the first things I do with a system is use the "Keyboard" preference pane to remap caps lock to Control ("Keyboard" -> "Modifier Keys").

Right, it'd probably be more convenient to have ctl on the right side of the keyboard. I could see how using caps-a (b, f, e, r, s) to navigate the terminal could be easier.

Maybe I'll try it.

FWIW,

binaryage's TotalFinder has a hotkey feature called Visor. https://totalfinder.binaryage.com

macOS stock Finder does have basic cursor key navigation. It's not Xtree, NortonCommander awesome. (Edit: Oops. This linked cheatsheet does list the Finder navigation keys.)

I've always coveted the Canon Cat's utopian interface, but have never actually tried it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat

> I've found that MacOS is much more touch-pad / mouse heavy than other OS's. For example, CTL-K is awesome for browsing through a Linux folder system. This would put you in the path area, so you can sort of use it like a terminal.

macOS’s Finder has the _Go to folder_ (⇧⌘G) command for that. It’s not exactly the same but it basically allows you to do the same thing.

GNOME is even better :)

Press Super, type a file or folder's name, then press Enter (or Down and Enter) to open it.

Or you can switch to the Files app (Super+1 if it's your first Favourite app; or Super, “fil”, Enter) and just type to search. Enter opens the first result, Down selects others.

I have to use macOS at work and it annoys me how much I have to use the mouse.

Don’t you use the Spotlight search bar at work, which should give you a similar feature?

(Or Alfred as a power-user alternative)

> This would put you in the path area, so you can sort of use it like a terminal.

In macOS’ Finder, it’s command-shift-G. It also supports tab-completion and the usual text-manipulation shortcuts. It works also in file dialogs.

> CMD-Tab back to Finder breaks constantly

What happens when this bug occurs? I've run every version of OSX/macOS, and have never had a bug with using cmd-tab to switch to Finder

The finder window won't reopen, which forces me to manually reopen it. The finder will reset to the home directory (as mine is set up to start).

I've been using Mac for 3 years now, it was the same issue in Sierra, Mojave, and now Catalina.

You have an existing Finder window and it just... goes away?

You have no existing Finder window, and you are surprised that one does not open on its own when you switch to the app?

Could you clarify the situation?

If I have Finder and Pages open (or any program, it's not relevant), I CMD-tab from Finder to Pages, then when I CMD-tab to go back to Finder, it doesn't pop up. I have to manually go to the Dock and reopen Finder. Finder restarts back to the home directory (my default start point). Of course, I would probably be in wherever the original document is. This doesn't happen all the time, but maybe 75% of the time.

This is also my second MacBook, so it's not the computer...

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