How to make the Alfred search window a frontmost app

[FroZen_X]

btw to actually adopt some of the habits or better to train the muscle memory i now disabled the "return" key and my "delete" key.

That way I'm forced to do it haha

 

  <item>
    <name>Disable return key</name>
    <identifier>private.return</identifier>

    <autogen>
      __KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RETURN, KeyCode::VK_NONE
    </autogen>
  </item>

 

[deanishe]

 I appreciate what you guys are trying to achieve, but it messes me up enough using another computer that doesn't have CAPS LOCK mapped to ESC and touch-tap to click*.

 

So remapping DELETE, RETURN and god knows what else is a bit too much for me.

 

* not half as much as it messes up my friends when they try to use my German keyboards with their British mappings  

[nikivi]

11 minutes ago, deanishe said:

touch-tap to click*

 

What is touch tap to click*?

 

I also have my right shift key mapped to delete. And right option key to cmd + tab to switch apps quickly. Those two are really neat too. Oh and of course mapping right cmd to alfred although I nearly never use default Alfred prompt. 

[deanishe]

1 minute ago, nikivi said:

What is touch tap to click

 

Just tapping the touchpad instead of physically pushing it down. I may be getting confused with my two-finger-click for right-click vs the default. Not sure. I rarely use other people's Macs and try to forget as quickly as possible: it's rarely a pleasant experience, as I'm usually trying to undo something dumb they did.

Edited December 7, 2017 by deanishe

[FroZen_X]

10 minutes ago, deanishe said:

So remapping DELETE, RETURN and god knows what else is a bit too much for me.

 

I'm currently just deactivating the keys to get my muscle memory going. I must say however i have also mapped "CMD_R+W" to "OPT+Delete" for work deletion so the 

delete key is not the worst. Other than that Shift_L and Shift_R to move to words like OPT+Arrow_Left/Right might be interesting to you too.

 

 

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

* not half as much as it messes up my friends when they try to use my German keyboards with their British mappings  

 

that's just awesome haha

[nikivi]

My biggest frustration with using other people's computers is switching apps. I am soo used to switching apps by simply pressing two keys. That cmd + tabbing is just painful. 

 

The number of times I used this macro alone is insane imo.

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by nikivi

[dfay]

seriously, doesn’t karabiner eat up more time in the customizing than it saves? thoroughly puzzled by all this...

[nikivi]

1 minute ago, dfay said:

seriously, doesn’t karabiner eat up more time in the customizing than it saves?

 

Without Karabiner, managing Learn Anything and all its thousands of maps would be a nightmare for me. So it helps.

[deanishe]

1 minute ago, FroZen_X said:

that's just awesome haha

 

To be fair, I don't think I'd do a whole lot better with a British keyboard set to a German mapping.

 

On the other hand, at least I know which key on a German keyboard is the apostrophe. It drives me mental watching Germans hit the acute accent key instead of the apostrophe…

[FroZen_X]

1 minute ago, nikivi said:

My biggest frustration with using other people's computers is switching apps. I am soo used to switching apps by simply pressing two keys. That cmd + tabbing is just painful.

 

I know that feeling haha mine is Tab Mode so its Tab+Q/W ^^

 

7 minutes ago, dfay said:

seriously, doesn’t karabiner eat up more time in the customizing than it saves? thoroughly puzzled by all this...

 

First its not easy but once you have the muscle memory you don't wanna go back ^ 

[deanishe]

5 minutes ago, dfay said:

seriously, doesn’t karabiner eat up more time in the customizing than it saves? thoroughly puzzled by all this...

 

When I look at all the stuff @nikivi does, I often wonder the same.

 

No offence Niki, but I think you focus a bit too much on fast and not enough on smart…

[nikivi]

I even have a macro to go to Alfred Forum  

 

 

 

 

Here it is if anyone wants it. It is binded to C + 9 for me and it also jumps between different Alfred Forum tabs.

[nikivi]

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

not enough on smart

I am working on the smart part. Just give it time. I am not the smartest bloke in this forum.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by nikivi

[FroZen_X]

13 minutes ago, deanishe said:

When I look at all the stuff @nikivi does, I often wonder the same.

 

I find it quite interesting and must say by looking at it I'm picking more things out that make my workflow better.

I didn't even know about the simultaneous press before which i now implemented. Its really useful i must say and makes 

accessing really quick. Sticky i've used before, but bringing it now to the next lvl <.< >.>

[deanishe]

1 minute ago, nikivi said:

I even have a macro to go to Alfred Forum

 

I really think you should delete that one, tbh. Quickly posting on the forum (or anywhere) is rarely the right choice…

 

3 minutes ago, nikivi said:

smart part.

 

"Smart" isn't a page. It's a process.

[nikivi]

2 minutes ago, deanishe said:

It's a process

 

Yeah but how do I learn it? I am kind of trying. Also if you noticed, I don't post many questions on this forum compared to say few months ago.

 

I even try to be methodical about it all.

Edited December 7, 2017 by nikivi

[FroZen_X]

8 minutes ago, deanishe said:

"Smart" isn't a page. It's a process.

 

nikivi's attempt is not bad, the more you learn the smarter you get. Also by using a lot of these things you learn

what is the best for you or overall the smartest way. With the page he was just showing that he tries i guess.

But yeah i agree that it’s a process

[FroZen_X]

12 minutes ago, nikivi said:

Yeah but how do I learn it? I am kind of trying. Also if you noticed, I don't post many questions on this forum compared to say few months ago.

 

I even try to be methodical about it all.

 

I may quote yourself when it comes to the posting part "Knowledge is knowing where the answers might lie. Solving problems is knowing how to apply the knowledge you have to solve a thing."

I know from viewing some of your questions and of which i replied to that you sometimes just ask too quick and don't actually take a moment to think

about the issue. You can post as much as you want, as long as you have thought about it and not just have shot it out. In addition to that is the way of how .

Like the whole screenshot thing ^^ 

 

About the methodical part, it actually reminds me of my father haha. He has things usually neatly put out and also documents things really well

for times when he hasn’t looked at something for a long time and knows he will need it again. I myself find this step sometimes a bit overkill 

when you do it with so many things but it’s a nice to have.

 

[deanishe]

28 minutes ago, nikivi said:

Yeah but how do I learn it?

 

Think, understand and learn.

 

Mindlessly memorising individual facts is pointless, which is why you need to think about them and learn the underlying principles.

 

Analyse, generalise, internalise.

 

29 minutes ago, nikivi said:

I don't post many questions

 

A lot of questions is a good thing. A few questions asked a lot of times—because you never think, understand and learn—isn't.

[deanishe]

30 minutes ago, FroZen_X said:

Solving problems is knowing how to apply the knowledge you have to solve a thing

 

This. And today, most knowledge is a quick web search away. You don't have to remember everything the way our parents did.

 

So in a way, models and processes—knowing how to apply the knowledge—is much more important.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

@nikivi: when you use simultaneous keypresses in Karabiner, does your typing have to be 100% precise so that you don't inadvertently activate a Karabiner combo? For example, if K+A switches to Safari, then when you type the word "karabiner," if the leading 'k' and 'a' overlap even slightly, you'll accidentally switch to Safari. Do you use 100% separated typing technique? If so, do you think that's a better typing technique, or is it a sacrifice you make in order to use simultaneous keypresses for other things?

 

I'm asking because, since Karabiner-Elements doesn't yet have simultaneous keypresses, I can simulate it by, for example, creating a 'k' mode and then launching Safari by holding 'k' down and then pressing 'a'. This works fine as long as I have 100% separated typing technique. My typing isn't 100% separated because it doesn't have to be, and because I perceive fully separating keypresses as slower when typing text. I'm trying to decide if it's worth getting used to a different typing technique for the sake of (emulated) simultaneous keypresses.

[nikivi]

First of all, K+A are not simultaneous for me. The reason is that A is my modifier key which is my control key and I use it a lot. So A + K quickly triggers `control + k`. I only sim keys like JK or KL or LM. Essentially keys that are related to HJKL because those are VIM keys.

 

Also you can set the delay for key triggers but for me it is perfect and I never have any problems typing normally and using my bindings. As for your question, you do need to get into the habit of separated writing. Essentially you never should bottom down on a key and still hold it unless you want to make your binding. Simultaneous keys are certainly worth it though. My most used one is JK to do Google Search with Searchio and : + J to search open Safari tabs + KL for searching Dash.

 

Try and experiment with it though and see if you like it. Karabiner allows you to make the delay or the trigger timing so you can make something that works for you. My other advice as I mentioned before is to not make HJKL keys modifiers because holding down on these keys is really useful if you use VIM or some kind of Vim mode anywhere (which I advise you do).

 

Oh and one more binding that I advise you guys you to try is binding semicolon to a shift key. Having semicolon as shift key and A key as control key is aamazing. Especially if you use Vim because you can make any kind of motion without moving your hands. Ever. Don't forget to also make caps lock into escape on single press and some other modifier when held. I use Caps + keys to search specific Dash docs. (i.e. Caps + G to search Go docs or Caps + T to search Python).

 

p.s. Poor OP, all he wanted to do was make Alfred window a frontmost app

Edited December 9, 2017 by nikivi

[JimmyTheSaint]

My K+A example was just for purposes of illustration.

 

I hear you on the HJKL keys and also on the semicolon key. Actually, I use emacs keybindings--and very happily--but it had become clear to me on my own early on that all the home row keys are particularly valuable to a user interface's ergonomics. In fact, I prefer to avoid 'A' and semicolon because a more compact layout can be used one-handed when necessary. I first made a home row launcher (which I sent you--did you get it?), but I couldn't seem to hit on a combination of those two timing parameters that would prevent mistakes due to home row characters being captured by K-E. My typing technique obviously falls into some overlapping, but that's not an issue for typing on a keyboard that hasn't been re-mapped. I think overlapping allows faster typing because you use less physical energy, but now the modifier key-based launcher that I had turned to is running out of available ergonomic key combos. I don't want to turn to command, option, or function keys because they require shifts in hand position. My interface that I posted on Github uses spacebar and tab to enter modes. By the way, I have caps_lock mapped to left_control. So I want to add home row keys to initiate modes, but that's going to lead to a ton of typing errors until I can impose a rather harsh discipline on my typing technique that will slow my--and I think anybody's--typing down.

[nikivi]

Yeah I did get your config. Thank you for sharing it. Really happy to find other people who are also into this remapping thing. It's just so bizarre that people don't care to personalise their app or OS experience and just use the defaults for everything.

 

[JimmyTheSaint]

I made a launcher that emphasizes home row keys 's', 'd', 'f'', 'j', 'k', and 'l', and the 'w', 'e', 'i', and 'o' keys because they require the least energy to move to. I find moving the index finger up a row to be far less ergonomic than the middle and ring fingers. The total spread of the two-key launch sequences is narrow enough to be one-handable. The file is here

 

https://gist.github.com/Jimmy34742/c442fd432115f55b752f1d3982b2acff

 

Most of the my spacebar-based launcher remains active in that file. The spacebar-based launcher is now here

 

https://gist.github.com/Jimmy34742/7be28de581e706c37b059b395bf8900f

 

Switching apps feels good, but I could use some help with optimizing the timing parameters to ensure a good typing feel

 

"basic.to_delayed_action_delay_milliseconds": 0,
"basic.to_if_alone_timeout_milliseconds": 500

Yes, I know this thread suffers from topic creep, but I couldn't think of a better place to post this.