How to make the Alfred search window a frontmost app

[deanishe]

10 minutes ago, nikivi said:

Karabiner Elements reaches a point where I can myself transfer to it

 

What's missing? (I only use it to remap a couple of keys).

[nikivi]

15 minutes ago, deanishe said:

What's missing? (I only use it to remap a couple of keys).

 

This is my current Karabiner configuration file. It's 12,000 lines long (condensed). I kind of dread transferring it all to JSON but it will have to be done at some point.

 

As for things missing, I need to figure out how to define this block in new Karabiner. Which makes a certain key a custom modifier key (sticky key).

 

And I also need to map Simultaneous keys like I can do here.

 

Apparently you can use this to achieve the sticky key behaviour on Karabiner Elements. I need to get myself a second mac to test it and I can't. ?

 

And simultaneous keys are not possible yet from what I know. So yeah, if both these things get added, I will get on the Highest Sierra available.

Edited December 5, 2017 by nikivi

[Vero]

It’s extremely rare for a thread to be removed from the forum, but the thread you’re referring to was a particular case where the discussion was unnecessarily negative, repeating the same statements ad nauseum, and veering off-topic.

 

We allowed the discussion to come to its natural conclusion, and left it for long enough for all parties involved to read it, then removed it.

 

I have a copy of the thread in the logs, so @nikivi, if you need any more specific information from that thread, let me know and I’ll be able to recover this for you. (thanks @deanishe for re-posting some of it)

 

From our community guidelines:
“The forum is a place for helpful questions & answers and improving your knowledge of Alfred. It is not a place to vent if you feel Alfred isn't the butler for you. By all means, do ask for help with things that you'd like to do, but please don't use the forum as a soapbox as these posts will be moderated.”

 

Hope this clarifies why this thread was removed, and we can put this matter to rest.

 

Cheers,
Vero

[JimmyTheSaint]

Yeah, I do the sticky key thing--essentially, launcher mode--no problem. I use tab, spacebar, and spacebar-shift for that, but you can use any key_code to enter a mode and any key-code to create sub-modes, or sub-layers, or whatever people like to call it. Sub-modes are easier using modifier keys, though. I created a Home Row launcher using only the homerow of keys, 'a', 's', 'd', and 'f' as sticky keys.

 

Simultaneous key, no. And I've tried many logical things to achieve longpresses, but nothing works without side effects (something happens on key up or the character gets passed through as if it were typed alone).

[nikivi]

Thank you @Vero. I understand why the thread was hidden and you are right it was probably overly negative and at times repetitive. I am just happy my post was not lost so I can link to it from my wiki.  

[nikivi]

5 minutes ago, JimmyTheSaint said:

Yeah, I do the sticky key thing--essentially, launcher mode--no problem

You can always share your config on GitHub for all other people to see and gain inspiration from. ? 

[deanishe]

1 minute ago, nikivi said:

I kind of dread transferring it all to JSON

 

At 12,000 lines, that's definitely something you write a script for. Has nobody written one already?

 

2 minutes ago, nikivi said:

I need to get myself a second mac

 

A second partition or disk should be enough. Only professional developers have extra devices just for testing stuff, and it's always old machines.

 

I have two Macs because I often work away from home, and I need a computer to do my job. A low-end MacBook Air costs much less than a missed deadline because my computer broke…

[JimmyTheSaint]

1 minute ago, Vero said:

It’s extremely rare for a thread to be removed from the forum, but the thread you’re referring to was a particular case where the discussion was unnecessarily negative, repeating the same statements ad nauseum, and veering off-topic.

 

We allowed the discussion to come to its natural conclusion, and left it for long enough for all parties involved to read it, then removed it.

 

I have a copy of the thread in the logs, so @nikivi, if you need any more specific information from that thread, let me know and I’ll be able to recover this for you. (thanks @deanishe for re-posting some of it)

 

From our community guidelines:
“The forum is a place for helpful questions & answers and improving your knowledge of Alfred. It is not a place to vent if you feel Alfred isn't the butler for you. By all means, do ask for help with things that you'd like to do, but please don't use the forum as a soapbox as these posts will be moderated.”

 

Hope this clarifies why this thread was removed, and we can put this matter to rest.

 

Cheers,
Vero

On the contrary, it was a productive and intelligent discussion among thoughtful, experienced users who are also paying customers. It was honestly critical and honestly praiseworthy as appropriate. The topic was to compare user experiences of Alfred and LaunchBar, and it stayed on topic quite well. When points are being debated back and forth, that is neither unnecessarily negative nor repetitive. Why not honor everyone who put time and labor into the forum, restore it, and let readers decide what they think? Perhaps edit out the posts that merely characterize what other people have written rather than responding to content with content.

[nikivi]

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

At 12,000 lines, that's definitely something you write a script for

 

I suppose I can write a script for it. Only thing I am not sure is what the JSON equivalent of it will be yet to write such a script. 

 

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Has nobody written one already?

 

I doubt such script exists. Because I know 0 people who actually use Karabiner in this way. Or at least they are not sharing their configuration. Speaking of configuration, @deanishe dotfiles would be really cool to see. 

 

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

A second partition or disk should be enough.

 

I haven't thought of this. I will certainly try it.

 

Only problem is, a mac without Karabiner at this point is unusable for me. I can't even type things properly because all my symbols (brackets and things) are karabiner mappings. Once Simultaneous keys support rolls out though, I will certainly give it a go. Thank you @deanishe

 

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

because my computer broke…

 

Macs are pretty resilient to things from my experience.

Edited December 5, 2017 by nikivi

[FroZen_X]

1 hour ago, deanishe said:

What's missing? (I only use it to remap a couple of keys).

 

Karabiner Elements doesn't have the standard things like Tab mode or Launcher Mode. I myself have like nikivi now 

things that i use from Karabiner that i cannot live without. That starts with a simple "Tab+Q" to switch between apps or "Tab+1" to switch tabs

in my browser.

I haven't tried the whole two keys at once approach yet and will look into what @nikivi has done. 

[deanishe]

3 minutes ago, JimmyTheSaint said:

nor repetitive

 

It was largely a rehash of previous threads on the same topic, and yeah, it was kinda going in circles. There really wasn't much new or worthwhile (in the sense of "worth preserving for posterity") in there. @nikivi's comment that I reposted above was a clear stand-out in terms of adding something new (which is why I reposted it).

 

The purpose of the forum isn't to be a platform for debates, no matter how interesting: it's is to help Alfred users have a better Alfred experience, and hopefully, to be a friendly and welcoming place for Alfred users.

 

That thread was another example of the XY problem. It was framed in terms of Y ("Why isn't Alfred more like Launchbar?") instead of X ("How do I do XYZ in Alfred?").

 

The nature of the thread violated the "why" of the forum, and my getting stroppy at going in circles violated the "how". So the thread got hidden.

 

I'm sorry for my part in getting the thread hidden.

 

Going forward, how about you try to frame your questions in terms of X, not Y, and I'll try to not be a nob?

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, nikivi said:

dotfiles would be really cool to see

 

You mean my dotfiles?

 

Haha. Not any time soon.

 

The reason my GitHub is full of Alfred workflows and little else is because a workflow is a nice, small project that's within my ability to get more-or-less right the first time. (The key to any good project is to get the data model right, and with workflows, the data model is largely dictated by Alfred.)

 

I have many dozens of larger-scale projects (with a particular emphasis on RSS and podcast stuff—an obsession of mine) that are in the crappy-prototype-but-works-for-me stage, including my dotfiles, which I'm probably never going to release because they work for me…

 

You'd think that all I can do is workflows, but I have a load of webapps, Qt-, TkInter-, asyncio- and Twisted- based programs just for me. Because I can't be bothered to re-write them to fix all the dumb stuff I did in the first version and make them "ready for release". 

 

1 hour ago, nikivi said:

a mac without Karabiner at this point is unusable for me

 

Haha. I know exactly what you mean. I had an issue with Fixum yesterday that involved quitting and restarting Alfred a lot. It was a nightmare, as I always use Alfred to quit and start programs…

[JimmyTheSaint]

11 hours ago, nikivi said:

You can always share your config on GitHub for all other people to see and gain inspiration from. ? 

I posted my K-E launcher at https://gist.github.com/Jimmy34742/7be28de581e706c37b059b395bf8900f

 

It uses spacebar and tab as sticky keys. The organization is:

spacebar + letter => application

spacebar + number => folder or file

spacebar + shift + number => a logically (to me) different category of folder or file

tab => URL's, Alfred workflows and (I intend) LaunchBar actions

(future) tab + spacebar => workflows and actions and tab (above) only launches URL's.

 

All suggestions and comments welcome.

[FroZen_X]

I myself am currently toying with the whole simultaneous key trigger thing from karabiner pointed out by @nikivi.

Like at the moment im fiddeling with these settings:

 

Sticky:

A+F = Return

A+J = Cursor Left

A+I = Cursor Up

A+K = Cursor Down

A+J = Cursor Right

 

This let's you navigate through Alfred without leaving the keyboard row(Takes some getting used to atm).

 

Simultaneous Keys:

 

D+O = Recent Downloads via @vitor  Workflow

F+O = Show folders only in Alfred via Filefilter

F+J = Typinator Quick Search. Im currently trying it out thanks to @nikivi and @deanishe 

F+S = Create Snipped from selection in Typinator

Y+T = Youtube Searchio search via Workflow from @deanishe

G+O = Google Searchio search Workflow from @deanishe

 

Overall this is just fiddling around and a thing that my muscle memory has to catch up to ^^

Btw do you guys have a collection of Typinator phrases or overall a snipped collection?

 

 

Cheers,

 

Frozen

 

Edit1: Sadly i cannot search the content of a snipped via Alfred which would make it a lot easier

Edited December 6, 2017 by FroZen_X

[nikivi]

24 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

A+J = Cursor Left

A+I = Cursor Up

A+K = Cursor Down

A+J = Cursor Right

 

This looks really painful to me. Why not use traditional HJKL vim bindings? For me its S + HJKL to move around. Oh and the cool thing also is that S + V held will emulate shift key being pressed. So I can S + V + L and visually select text to the right. 

 

24 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

do you guys have a collection of Typinator phrases or overall a snipped collection

 

I share my Typinator snippets here.

 

I also share my KM macros here. I am in the process of fully moving nearly all my KM macros there. And if you use SnippetsLab, you can import my snippet library here if you want.

 

I try to make my entire workflow and everything fully transparent and interchangeable so you or anyone else can pick out pieces of my workflow you like and use it or just steal ideas from.

Edited December 6, 2017 by nikivi

[FroZen_X]

7 minutes ago, nikivi said:

This looks really painful to me. Why not use traditional HJKL vim bindings? For me its S + HJKL to move around. Oh and the cool thing also is that S + V held will emulate shift key being pressed. So I can S + V + L and visually select text to the right. 

 

That's actually an even better approach. I'll search your Karabiner setting in Github and implement it.

I first actually set J and K as up and down but then thought about the gamer hand haha. This however seems to be better as of the combination with 

selecting text.

How have you set backspace or is it not replaced?

[nikivi]

2 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

How have you set backspace or is it not replaced?

 

My delete key is S + D.

 

All my configuration is mapped as a map here. It's easier to navigate it if you own MindNode and you download it locally.

 

I wish there was a Karabiner remapping forum available. I would live there.

Edited December 6, 2017 by nikivi

[FroZen_X]

@nikivi thanks for sharing all of this.

it certainly takes some getting used to, but i can already say that this way of binding i move my hands less and its more efficient.

 

Only Problem is that i have to force my mind to adapt at the moment. Also that i changed now capslock single press to esc. 

I have had the Hyper key functionality, but just now added the esc single press.

 

I already have issues with other machines, but after this...man, haha

[nikivi]

18 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

already have issues with other machines, but after this...man, haha

 

I have issues with my own machine when Karabiner glitches out. I have to restart and cry. 

 

Fortunately, this nearly never happens.

 

This whole thing started from me trying out Brett Treppstra's hyper key for caps lock and then thinking, why not do this for every single key. It's insanely powerful especially if you combine it with Alfred and the amazement that Keyboard Maestro is.

 

18 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

Only Problem is that i have to force my mind to adapt at the moment

 

My advice is to make a mental map of what key is responsible for what and after using it, you just remember things. No need to memorise things explictly. Also find a way to super quickly iterate on it.

 

In my case I have a macro that will open Karabiner config that is always open in second tab of iTerm with vim using this macro:

 

 

Which opens vim:

 

 

And then I can add my changes and jump around the XML file with prefixes (i.e. _alf def or _km def or sticky g). And then I use this to instantly refresh the config.

 

I believe Karabiner Elements has something similar. 

Edited December 6, 2017 by nikivi

[nikivi]

45 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

thanks for sharing all of this

 

No problem. ? 

 

I always wondered why so many people shared things and their code for free. Now I understand. Open Source is addicting. 

[FroZen_X]

25 minutes ago, nikivi said:

No need to memorise things explictly. Also find a way to super quickly iterate on it.

 

what i meant was instead of using arrow keys, backspace, return etc. I now have the other way and my muscle memory is just

in the way at the moment. Just have to get used to it ^^

 

31 minutes ago, nikivi said:

My advice is to make a mental map of what key is responsible for what and after using it, you just remember things.

 

Im also using Keyboard Maestro palettes for various apps that are already helping a lot.

 

28 minutes ago, nikivi said:

And then I can add my changes and jump around the XML file with prefixes (i.e. _alf def or _km def or sticky g). And then I use this to instantly refresh the config.

 

thats pretty interesting tho as i make a lot of changes at the moment. Better to refresh via script than pressing the button in karabiner.

 

29 minutes ago, nikivi said:

I believe Karabiner Elements has something similar. 

 

im on el capitan as i reverted back quite a while ago, so thats no issue

 

Do you have any settings tipps? Like Karabiner Parameters related?

 

@deanishe and @nikivi what is your biggest advantage of Typinator over Alfreds textexpander? Im testing it currently and already like

the fuzzy, powerful search. Just try to justify the value for it with some more opinions.

[FroZen_X]

@nikivi there is actually another thin i wonder of. I have seen in your "private.xml" that you also have mouse movements 

that you control via keyboard. Is that something you use often and find it really useful? 

[nikivi]

27 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

Do you have any settings tipps? Like Karabiner Parameters related?

 

I prefix things. 

 

General category is actually my normal mode category. But I use few profiles for programming things. The only difference between these profiles is the P sticky key does different things.

 

The general profile is my Go profile. So P + f will insert `fmt.Println()` or P + G to insert log.Printf() and move caret between brackets (I use that a lot for debugging).

 

Also P + W will insert `workflow:` which is @deanishe AwGo library magic argument for workflows. I try to write many workflows, often failing but still trying.

 

And then I use this to switch between profiles:

 

 

I optimise things for fast retrieval and memory. So I can do anything as fast as 1 second and I always can query things in case I forget something. I also structure things to scale.

 

Also the only keys that are not sticky for me are HJKL because sVim and vim mode.

 

Edited December 6, 2017 by nikivi

[nikivi]

4 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

Is that something you use often and find it really useful

 

It was really fun to use at first. But I stopped using it as I do everything from the keyboard. I even activate various things that don't have a hotkey with a hotkey using KM. Like using this macro: 

 

 

To click here in Safari:

 

 

I do use D + G to center mouse to current window a lot though.

 

[deanishe]

47 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

what is your biggest advantage of Typinator over Alfreds textexpander?

 

When TextExpander pulled their money and data grab, Alfred’s snippet expansion was extremely limited (didn’t even have a cursor macro). I had an old Typinator licence, so it was cheap to upgrade, and it imported TextExpander snippets almost perfectly.

 

I don’t do anything super-advanced with snippets*, but I do use forms quite a bit to enter multiple values. AFAIK, with Alfred you’d need to write a workflow to do that, which is an awful lot more work. Maybe 60 minutes to do what takes 60 seconds in Typinator.

 

Also, Typinator expands more reliably.

 

* I use native snippet engines when coding. An engine built into the editor is far more powerful, as it can use the editor’s own API instead of the clipboard and simulated keypresses.

Edited December 6, 2017 by deanishe