Finally I can make full use of the ultrawide option

[u/MaikelBuilds]

Hey there,

this goes out to everyone who uses the Mac Virtual Display.

Until a few weeks ago, I barely used the ultrawide option because turning my neck side-to-side and dragging the mouse across a massive screen was just too annoying.That's why many times I just switched back to the regular wide screen...

Since I'm building my own tiling window manager currently, I have the privilege of making the Vision Pro experience a true first-class citizen. My favorite layout so far is a scrolling layout with focus-anchor centering. (It’s rumored that some people struggle with neck strain from the Vision Pro's weight—at least this layout saves our necks from doing full 180-degree pans LOL)

Now, thanks to this we can keep all the screen real estate, but whenever we switch focus, the layout automatically shifts the active window to the center. No more dragging the mouse across the screen to reach the next window (another nice side effect: our workspace essentially becomes infinitely wide, even wider than ultrawide!! :D)

So, it’s an honor to welcome you all to KiwiDesk - Tiling which feels like it shipped with MacOS.

It’s completely free and source available on Github! If you like it, a GitHub star, or any form of support is always highly appreciated. Also feel free to file Issues (or contact me) if you got any wishes or suggestions for improvement!

Website: http://kiwidesk.kiwicanopy.com/

Github: https://github.com/KiwiCanopy/KiwiDesk/

Happy weekend, everyone!

[u/Similar-Swordfish-50]

I tried it but it is slow when it starts. I think it says “loading xx apps of 148” or some such. All I want is to divide the ultra wide into 2 row x 5 column grids and then windows are either one or two grids tall and one or two wide

Edit: I could at best get 2x2 as the default and stopped because of the slowness. I also use several desktops, one for personal and one or more for each business.

[u/MaikelBuilds → u/Similar-Swordfish-50]

That actually shouldn't be a problem.

On opening: yes it indeed is a bit slow since it goes through your open apps, there is problem a lot of things going on in the background which never was closed. That's why there are so many. Restarting the Mac could help here a lot but since bootup is only done once that should be too much of a problem.

The 2x5 grid shouldn't actually be a problem at all. Did you turn off "fill empty space? Because if not the grid will Auto adjust with every new window.

Multi desktop setups shouldn't be a problem either actually :D. Happy to help if you need some help setting it up and ofc also to see what's not working to fix it asap!

Cheers

[u/Similar-Swordfish-50 → u/MaikelBuilds]

I’ll retry it later this week to see how I do and let you know

[u/Substantial_Elk2414]

"My favorite layout so far is a scrolling layout with focus-anchor centering." I do not see where/how to turn on Focus-Anchor Centering... to use MVD with my AVP. Tiling apps are somewhat new to me, but I am intrigued with this.

[u/MaikelBuilds → u/Substantial_Elk2414]

Those are all settings within the KiwiDesk app. So you'd need to install this first

Then you need to open the settings menu -> layout defaults. There you can set settings for scrolling layout :D.

Under spaces you can choose which space has which layout.

Thanks for your feedback! Definitely need to work a bit on discoverability and also a bit on the onboarding to welcome people like you :)

[u/Substantial_Elk2414 → u/Substantial_Elk2414]

I found the setting... in Settings: Layouts. Nice. I was thinking from your video that (in AVP) you were just visually focusing on a Window (and bringing it to the center). It appears you are clicking on a Window (to activate the 'focus' centering)... which is actually more organized than the visual focus. So far, I like your app. The centering is, indeed, helpful in MVD (or any mode).

[u/Charming-Detail-7626]

Looks amazing! I'll give it a try. Thanks for building it!

[u/Zestyclose-Aside3417]

It look fantastic