Window Placement: Winsplit Revolution -Like Application for Linux (Kde)

Is there anything like Winsplit Revolution for Mac OS X?

Try these:

• Zooom/2 ($15) has been my favorite since I installed it. Fast, flexible, and minimizes the number of key combinations I need to remember
• Divvy ($15) might soon replace Zoom/2 for me. It's closer to Winsplit. You can arrange windows on a grid, define your own grid arrangements, and define your own shortcuts. It also minimizes the number of keystroke combinations you need to remember. BONUS: There are Mac and Windows versions, which means if you use both platforms you can use the same window management method across all your machines.
• Breeze ($8) makes it easy to make windows fullscreen, split left, or split right. It also lets you save screen states (generic) and for specific apps.
• Moom ($5) is a more recent entry. It supports both keyboard shortcuts and mouse shortcuts. For the mouse shortcuts, moving the cursor over the greeen zoom button displays a popup list of different layout options: full screen, left/right half, top/bottom half, or any of the corners.
• SizeUp ($10) mimics various aspects of WinSplit functionality, but it relies on many keystroke combinations that take time to learn. The advantage is quickly moving windows. The drawback is that it uses up a lot of global keyboard shortcuts, and there are so many I couldn't remember them all.
• Cinch ($7) is a mouse-driven app by the makers of SizeUp. Drag your window to various hot zones on the screen edges and the window will "cinch" to that edge and resize to fill half the screen. Similar to the built-in resizing feature in Windows 7.
• MercuryMover ($20) is quite powerful and offers fine-grained control. However, there are a lot of different key combinations and, overall, I didn't find it as easy to learn or as elegant as WinSplit. I uninstalled it almost immediately. It struck me as powerful, but inefficient and unwieldy.
• The DIY approach (free) mentioned in another post is to combine some applescripts and bind them to quicksilver triggers. I haven't tried this. But it is a free solution.

I found the weak window management one of the hardest things to cope with when I started using a Mac.

Why go beyond spaces and expose?

Winsplit significantly adds to what spaces and expose can do. I didn't understand the appeal until I actually used it. Before that, I thought virtual desktops (ie, like spaces) was enough. Now I consider it must-have functionality, especially on large monitors and multi-mon setups.

On my Windows machine running 3 monitors, I would rank the importance of these different apps in the following order:

1. Winsplit-like window rearranging
2. Spaces-like virtual desktops
3. Expose-like application switching

On my MacBook, I've learned to approach it the other way.

1. Expose-like application switching
2. Winsplit-like window rearranging
3. Spaces-like virtual desktops

Script to open executables and snap to top left hand corner of desktop

There is no direct way to position a Window from the Windows command prompt. You basically have the following options:

• Use a GUI automation tool, e.g. AutoHotkey which lets you script window actions. AutoHotkey e.g. offers the WinMove command:

  Run, calc.exe
  WinWait, Calculator
  WinMove, 0, 0 ; Move the window found by WinWait to the upper-left corner of the screen.
  

• Use PowerShell, e.g. with the WASP snapin (http://wasp.codeplex.com/).

• Write a short program in C/C++/.NET that will position the active Window at position 0,0 of your main screen.

A very basic program in C#, that takes a window caption as parameter could look like that:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

class Program
{
    public const int SWP_NOSIZE = 0x0001;
    public const int SWP_NOZORDER = 0x0004;

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern bool SetWindowPos(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hWndInsertAfter, int x, int y, int cx, int cy, uint uFlags);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        IntPtr handle = FindWindow(null, args[0]);
        SetWindowPos(handle, IntPtr.Zero, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOZORDER);
    }
}

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