Recomputing Thumbnails is slow and expensive #45
Comments
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Thanks for the improvement suggestions! Here is some feedback:
I really dislike the idea that the UI is shown to the user not up-to-date, then gets update while the user is interacting with it. I think it's bad UX, and I observe that neither Windows nor macOS built-in thumbnail systems do that. On Windows 10 the thumbnails are even live videos. They may have access to higher performance private APIs though; or they may have been done by C/C++ engineers who know how to code actual performant software, which is not my expertise unfortunately. FYI, I had originally my own downscaling for the thumbnails, and it was too slow. I then offloaded that task to
This is a bit tricky because you are not too interested in the 200ms delay before showing the UI, but I personally like it so I would like to keep it in. Keeping it in means that After pressing the shortcut, we start computing the thumbnails, and after 200ms-if-they-are-ready-or-until-they-are-ready, we show them It's clearly a better approach than currently which is: After pressing the shortcut, we wait 200ms, then compute the thumbnails and show them So yes it's great, just that concurrency on macOS is surprisingly difficult without third-party libraries. I'm used to nice APIs like observers RxJS/RxJava, but GCD on macOS is not the simplest API... So here waiting 200ms or more depending on if thumbnails are ready + handling the case where the user releases before that, and we switch focus to the window before showing the UI, while also cancelling the concurrent tasks so that the UI doesn't show up afterwards, confusing the user; well it's a bit of a challenge.
This is my favorite suggestion out of the bunch. I will look into it when I have time. It shouldn't be too hard, hopefully. Of course you can open a PR ;p |
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HyperSwitch does the caching, it works this way (from memory and years of using it):
As in: CPU cycles are only always "wasted" in case HyperSwitch is interactively used by the user, not otherwise. It annoys me the thumbs are not up2date (being accustomed it "just works" on windows) but I put higher value the software does not perform tasks not obvious to me. I use it daily on a Late 2013 MacBook Pro and, in terms of resources, it never gets in my way. |
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I think there is no need to compromise by caching. Looking at modern games, it is clear that resizing thumbnails in real-time is doable on modern hardware. The solution involves better code; that's it. We discussed above CPU multi-threading, but I think the target goal should be to downscale on the GPU where it is basically free. I'm not sure how to do that through Cocoa though. |
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Could there be an option to remove thumbnails and just have the App icons and title? This would remove any element of recalculating thumbnails and speed up use. I say this because I experience a huge delay in waiting for the UI to appear (> 1s) - I'd rather have no thumbnails if they'll cause this. |
This was discussed in #4 for additional context. I'm open to the idea of a preference to remove thumbnails, however, you may just want to checkout the apps mentioned in the ticket I linked in that case because text-only opens new perspectives that these apps take full advantage of (e.g. fuzzy text search) |
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@lwouis Thanks for your input! I would love to help here, but I am very limited in time. I am pretty confident that the bottleneck isn’t resizing the images, but rather the way they are retrieved. The CGImageList function call does an IPC call to the WindowServer which then captures the window. Then the WindowServer does another IPC call back with the image. From the disassembly it also looks like there is some locking going on, so that would incur even more overhead. However, I also found some interesting private APIs inside WindowServer. One function seems to give you access to the raw framebuffer pointer. That could be an option, since the IPC calls would not have to transfer each image anymore, just a pointer. |
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@galli-leo very interesting analysis! If what you say is true, and the expensive operation is getting the full-size images from the WindowServer, and not resizing them for thumbnails (like I thought), then the problem is going to be harder to solve. A cheap test you could do is check the performance of HyperSwitch. Unless they pulled some private API trick, they should experience the same issue on your laptop. Could you run a quick test to compare? On another note, I'm working on the Preferences UI at the moment, and while trying to add a dropdown for image quality, I read this documentation from Apple:
Looks like they share my vision about not updating UI while the user is interacting with it ;p |
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@galli-leo I just ran Instruments to profile and see what I get. I did not get the picture you painted (i.e. getting the pictures from the WindowServer being the bottleneck). What I got was something like this:
I'm don't have enough knowledge to push the performance investigation further. I wish I could though |
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@lwouis When I tested with Instruments I saw a lot of waiting inside the Run loop but not much in the actual drawing methods (which seems to be similar to your result). I highly suspect this is due to the way the XPC calls work, where the app waits inside the main run loop until it gets a response. Regarding HyperSwitch: They use a ton of Private APIs, (I would guesstimate about 200 Private Functions, haven't had the time to fully look at all of them yet). And looking closer at HyperSwitch, it seems clear that you can actually get access to the raw window data (well at least you don't have to use XPC calls to transfer the images). If I have some free time, I will try to get a Proof of Concept working, using what I learn from HyperSwitch :) |
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Very interesting @galli-leo! I did a more in-depth exploration of performance on the discord channel. You may want to have a quick look to see what I believe the offenders are. Regarding HyperSwitch, 200 private APIs is a shocking number! I can't picture in my head why they would need so many. Btw I integrated 1 private API to get screenshots of minimized windows. If you're curious you can see that in action in #78. Regarding private APIs in general, my position is the following: if there is no choice to use one to implement a feature, then we should do it. However there is a steep cost in maintenance, maintainability, and portability. We discussed here how there is no compat table available online. That means that using a private API is not guaranteed to work on other OS versions than the author's local machine where the change was tested locally. Basically it's a can of worms so its usage should be minimized to limit impact |
The private functions are also part of a client API that communicate with the WindowServer using mach messages (MIG IPC), triggering a corresponding server-side function invocation. IIRC the XPC mechanism is an abstraction that is built on top of mach. Out of interest, could either of you post a symbols dump of HyperSwitch? |
One performance issue we had is related how layers are handled. This commit allows subviews of Cell to be drawn into its layer and the layer be drawn asynchronously. In my test use-case with 16 windows with 3440x1417 sizing this brought the required time from key event reaction to ThumbnailPanel orderOut from 650ms down to 250ms. There is eventually more performance to gain by explicit control of .layerContentsRedrawPolicy. This commit also adds two NSLog statements for easy timing observations in the Run console. Related to lwouis#45
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@koekeishiya Symbol dump, below. However, I don't know which ones of these were really used. |
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@lwouis After experimenting a bit, I came to the following conclusions:
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On my system, I'm pretty sure now that getting the images from the WindowServer is the bottleneck. See discussion in that PR. What do you see in HyperSwitch has a terrible UX I think. Try opening a video and pressing the shortcut multiple time. You'll see the thumbnail is super late to get updated. Very interesting discussion here, although the solution discussed seems to only cover screen area capture, not windows capture. Also here, where the person explain the locking you mentioned. |
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@lwouis Hmm interesting, I will take another look. I did the above testing with a small POC application though, maybe there is something alt-tab that slows down the WindowServer? |
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I was reading online about how to deal with |
It's possible. Maybe it's all the bridges between Swift/ObjC/C that create memory copy and destroy the performance of the |
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@lwouis You don't need Accessibility settings for screen recording. Also even with private APIs you still need to be allowed to record screen in the settings. I think it might fast enough if you only capture one window, but probably too slow once you start capturing multiple. |
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I somehow stumbled upon a nicely written blogpost with quite some detailed information into how macOS Graphics work (under the hood) and figured it might be of interest to you: https://avaidyam.github.io/2019/02/19/DIY-Core-Animation.html |
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I've been exploring this topic again. I think this screenshot really shows the story:
Notice how the app is blocked most of the time when the shortcut is pressed. I'm not sure about thread preemption and other low-level mechanism of macOS, but basically how I read this is that the app is waiting on the I read many interesting low-level posts from @avaidyam (referenced by @koekeishiya above). However, that technique has been patched in 10.15 and can only render the app windows, not other apps windows. It was also unstable in previous macOS versions resulting in user session crashes on my 10.14 laptop for instance. Going forward I have no lead on a tech we could use to address the bad performance of the current
The only thing I can think of would be to pre-render/cache the thumbnails. But then we trade off responsiveness with showing the user incorrect data when they press the shortcut. Ok they see the list fast, and the list has the correct number of items with correct titles, but the screenshot will then change. We could put a spinner on each thumbnail so the user knows that we are now fetching the freshest image and showing them an old one in the meanwhile. To be honest I'm not sure this is a better experience. I would love other people opinion here on how to move forward |
I bet this is what HyperSwitch also realized, hence it works that way there. As a daily user of this feature, to me:: responsiveness is king than accurateness for this use case. |
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My immediate thoughts for how to speed up this process would be to look for ways to perform a batch operation when communicating with the WindowServer, instead of initiating a new request for every single window. The private function |
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I tried using the
Here is how I call it: func windowScreenshots(_ windowId: [CGSWindowID]) -> Array<CGImage> {
return CGSHWCaptureWindowList(
CGSMainConnectionID(),
UnsafeMutablePointer(mutating: windowId),
CGSWindowCount(windowId.count),
CGSWindowCaptureOptions(kCGSCaptureIgnoreGlobalClipShape | kCGSWindowCaptureNominalResolution)
)!.takeRetainedValue() as! Array<CGImage>
}However the I checked in the debugger, and I correctly send an array of 5 IDs for instance in @koekeishiya I looked at all results from Google, and all results from Github, but basically I see only 1 project on the web that seems to be using that function, and it's Webkit. The good news is that they still reference it on @gingerr could you please test the performance on this branch? Somehow for a few days I haven't been able to have the app be slow on my laptop. I tried opening hundreds of windows like I used to, but still it doesn't slow down much. Could you test with your 4k windows on your system? Maybe you'll see a difference on that branch as it uses |
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@lwouis quick feedback on performance: The performance is great (150ms - 250ms) and the performance issue I attempted to fix with #87 (which I could only reproduce on Hackintosh running High Sierra) is also gone! ThumbnailPanel summon feels instant on both systems. I think you got a winner here for both performance and access to minimised windows. 🥇 |
Also closes #11 closes #45 closes #62 BREAKING CHANGE: this brings huge changes to core parts of the codebase. It introduces the use of private APIs that hopefully are should be compatible from macOS 10.12+, but I couldn't test them. I reviewed the whole codebase to clean and improve on performance and readability
Also closes #11 closes #45 closes #62 BREAKING CHANGE: this brings huge changes to core parts of the codebase. It introduces the use of private APIs that hopefully are should be compatible from macOS 10.12+, but I couldn't test them. I reviewed the whole codebase to clean and improve on performance and readability
# [2.0.0](v1.14.4...v2.0.0) (2019-12-27) ### Features * display other spaces/minimized windows (closes [#14](#14)) ([3f5ea25](3f5ea25)), closes [#11](#11) [#45](#45) [#62](#62) ### BREAKING CHANGES * this brings huge changes to core parts of the codebase. It introduces the use of private APIs that hopefully are should be compatible from macOS 10.12+, but I couldn't test them. I reviewed the whole codebase to clean and improve on performance and readability
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This ticket and a bunch of others are closed in v2 released today. Feel free to test that new version out and give feedback here! Hopefully you experience better performance, can interact with minimized windows, and interact with windows from other spaces and displays. Cheers! |
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I was super excited to come across this project! Unfortunately I find the v2 lag before the switcher shows up when pressing alt-tab to still be quite high (vs HyperSwitch). It feels probably close to 2x HS's lag, and HS's lag I was already quite sensitive to (compared to the instantaneous native alt-tab and Windows alt-tab I'm most used to). I know it sounds super sensitive, and I may just be in the minority, but this is one of the biggest hurdles against being comfortable with this type of switcher (HS is not exempt but its lag is noticeably faster). Just my 2c! |
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Hi @zxti! Thanks for the feedback. I got 2 main points from your comment:
I want it too. Every contributor here wants it. I think we can all agree that for such a tool, snappy UX is priority number 2 (number 1 being "it actually shows the thumbnails and I can switch to them").
The reason HyperSwitch is faster is because it shows you wrong information. It displays something as fast as it can, then it update the UI asynchronously. Open a youtube video, and trigger HS many times and see how it takes a few seconds to be correct. They are basically refreshing thumbnails on a scheduled timer like 4s. If you alt-tab right after the tick, it will be accurate and be a fast UX. If you trigger right before the tick, you will see a different window that could make it hard to locate the visual image you are looking for (e.g. you are looking for a big dominant color like big red background but it's not there on the thumbnail), or worse mislead you (it will show you the how it looked 4s ago and will make you select the wrong thumbnail). My point is that they trade-off accuracy for speed. We could do that too in this project and cache thumbnails on a timer too. If we go that road I clearly want this to be a preference as some of us will prefer the opposite trade-off and would rather wait a few more ms and get accurate visuals. But that's not all! I actually have good news for you! I'm currently working on v3 which is a total rework of the app. Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach. I hope to be able to release v3 either this week or the next one |
closes #93 closes #24 BREAKING CHANGE: Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach. More context: #45 (comment)
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@zxti I opened a PR for v3. It's think it's ready but I'm afraid I didn't test enough. I tested very tricky cases but still I could be missing some. The issue with the new approach is that we maintain state, so if there are cases that we don't take into account, we can drift away from the actual state of the windows. However the benefits are many, as I hinted at in my previous comment. Could you test this on your side and tell me if it performs better for you? :) Also if it's functioning correctly ;p |
closes #93 closes #24 BREAKING CHANGE: Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach. More context: #45 (comment)
closes #93 closes #24 BREAKING CHANGE: Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach. More context: #45 (comment)
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Any chance you'd be able to add a build to that branch? Would be happy to test it out :] |
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@kawtharmonki |
closes #93 closes #24 closes #117 BREAKING CHANGE: Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach. More context: #45 (comment)
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Heya, sorry for the late response to this. V3 has massive speed improvements, great work! A couple of bugs:
Happy to open separate Issues - but not sure if they've already been addressed since it's been a while and you're making rapid progress + changes :) |
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Thanks for the feedback @kawtharrr!
The description you make is a bit weird. I have trouble imagining what this looks like exactly. I would say most likely this issue is gone, but if you want to confirm, let me attach the latest v3 branch build here: alt-tab-macos.app.zip
This behavior has been there from day 1 I believe. The keyboard events checks we do are "at least these keys are pressed", not "exactly these keys are pressed". I'll open a ticket to track that issue. As soon as ShortcutRecorder implements the ticket I opened, I will work on #72. ShortcutRecorder has exact matching so it will close this issue as well. |
closes #93 closes #24 closes #117 BREAKING CHANGE: Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach. More context: #45 (comment)
# [2.4.0](v2.3.4...v2.4.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
# [3.0.0](v2.3.4...v3.0.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * bump major version ([3c3b18c](3c3b18c)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * bump major version * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
# [3.0.0](v2.3.4...v3.0.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * bump major version ([3c3b18c](3c3b18c)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * bump major version * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
# [3.0.0](v2.3.4...v3.0.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * bump major version ([3c3b18c](3c3b18c)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * bump major version * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
# [3.0.0](v2.3.4...v3.0.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * bump major version ([3c3b18c](3c3b18c)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * bump major version * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
# [3.0.0](v2.3.4...v3.0.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * bump major version ([3c3b18c](3c3b18c)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * bump major version * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
# [3.0.0](v2.3.4...v3.0.0) (2020-03-10) ### Bug Fixes * a title change often means the content has change ([b8d6bc9](b8d6bc9)) * add rough downscaling when there are many windows (closes [#69](#69)) ([ced5ee6](ced5ee6)) * added releases link and aligned layout left on tab 3 ([6bb73dc](6bb73dc)) * also codesign debug builds ([a5f9911](a5f9911)) * app launched while in fullscreen shows first window ([c5cbcdb](c5cbcdb)), closes [/github.com//pull/114#issuecomment-576384795](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/pull/114/issues/issuecomment-576384795) * auto-update preferences sync with os from launch ([b3fb222](b3fb222)) * avoid rendering if app is not used ([fdddb0f](fdddb0f)) * better float rounding = sharper cell contents ([9a96e49](9a96e49)) * better focus/order for preferences (closes [#80](#80)) ([4a8bdeb](4a8bdeb)) * better textareas ([efc9bd3](efc9bd3)) * bring back the window delay that regressed with v2 ([bb95e55](bb95e55)) * compare correctly since pid can go away when an app dies ([4ded030](4ded030)) * compiler warnings ([1faa74c](1faa74c)) * cpu and memory leaks (see discussion in [#117](#117)) ([52626aa](52626aa)) * dock being shown was blocking alt-tab ([2826a1b](2826a1b)) * don't show floating windows + efficiencies ([3f8e3ea](3f8e3ea)) * don't show ui on fast trigger ([f8e1b00](f8e1b00)) * don't trigger ui refreshes if the app is not active ([b9a0152](b9a0152)) * don't upscale thumbnails of small windows ([0bc7472](0bc7472)) * feedback token injected during ci ([effdc5f](effdc5f)) * getting sparkle ready for release ([9f1f522](9f1f522)) * handle on-all-spaces windows better ([4abe9f3](4abe9f3)) * ignore build folder ([a2bb19f](a2bb19f)) * ignore trigger shortcuts if mission control is active ([b03b0aa](b03b0aa)) * initial discovery when single space was glitching the os ([3cd4b6d](3cd4b6d)) * keyboard shortcuts didn't work without a menu ([cf92dc1](cf92dc1)) * layout is now correct; also removed layout preferences for now ([a1b5266](a1b5266)) * layout regression introduced by eed0353 ([bdc41be](bdc41be)) * layout was incorrect resulting in thumbnails clipping ([fd906f4](fd906f4)) * letsmove was not active on release builds ([6ac0658](6ac0658)) * list temporary AXDialog windows like activity monitor ([51a8838](51a8838)) * more robust screen-recording permission check ([ce574a2](ce574a2)) * notarization issues ([d125dd3](d125dd3)) * observer leak would throw and crash the app sometimes ([9ca28eb](9ca28eb)) * only test permissions on the correct os versions ([4612e37](4612e37)) * open alt-tab during space transitions (closes [#92](#92)) ([141562d](141562d)) * prevent visual flickering (closes [#115](#115)) ([9a8c83e](9a8c83e)) * quitting apps was not properly removing apps from the list ([10b2c71](10b2c71)) * quitting multiple apps would refresh the ui multiple times ([bfc2700](bfc2700)) * regression on collectionviewitem titles (not showing) ([8cb6d86](8cb6d86)) * remove debug colors ([e588d55](e588d55)) * remove unnecessary/wrong layout code ([9e719e6](9e719e6)) * sharper images on non-retina displays ([1bb4d2a](1bb4d2a)) * smaller payload for the icons ([bddb6fa](bddb6fa)) * some apps have messy launch behavior ([7eb216d](7eb216d)), closes [/github.com//issues/117#issuecomment-583868046](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/117/issues/issuecomment-583868046) * some apps should retry observing until it works ([0c731f4](0c731f4)) * using floor() everywhere to avoid blurry rendering ([2a36196](2a36196)) ### Code Refactoring * complete rework of the internals ([547311e](547311e)), closes [#93](#93) [#24](#24) [#117](#117) [/github.com//issues/45#issuecomment-571898826](https://github.com//github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos/issues/45/issues/issuecomment-571898826) ### Features * add an app icon and menubar icon (closes [#38](#38)) ([a345dae](a345dae)) * add back the preferences for the new layout algo ([d52eb6d](d52eb6d)) * add debug profile to feedback message ([a14f965](a14f965)) * add feedback button on about window ([4046136](4046136)) * add in-app feedback form (closes [#145](#145)) ([725a030](725a030)) * add licence to about page ([cb66b79](cb66b79)) * add preference to start at login (closes [#159](#159)) ([982fe6c](982fe6c)) * adding cocoapods and letsmove/sparkle ([606bae7](606bae7)) * better packing; tall thumbnails are 1/2 the width of wide ones ([e34e3b1](e34e3b1)) * bump major version ([3c3b18c](3c3b18c)) * cleaner layout and explanation text ([fd3e768](fd3e768)) * debug build has code-signing to preserve permissions ([34a32f3](34a32f3)) * divide preferences by topic (closes [#130](#130)) ([291f872](291f872)) * drag-and-drop files on the ui (closes [#74](#74)) ([e1e3633](e1e3633)) * german and spanish localization ([6c440a7](6c440a7)) * improved translations ([debd3ae](debd3ae)) * integrate sparkle for auto-updates (closes [#131](#131)) ([069382c](069382c)) * localization (closes [#134](#134)) ([36e4bb0](36e4bb0)) * make system calls more parallel (closes [#160](#160)) ([a29b39f](a29b39f)) * migrate to standard os-backed preferences (closes [#161](#161)) ([e28c43f](e28c43f)) * more appealing presentation + minor refac ([67f291d](67f291d)) * nicer layout for about preferences ([03a5f77](03a5f77)) * quit button is clearer with explicit mention of the name ([6b6d748](6b6d748)) * replace default copyright with correct licence ([60b49ea](60b49ea)) * separating the quit button as it is a special case ([9fa0c06](9fa0c06)) * slightly increase contrast (mitigates [#82](#82)) ([291770e](291770e)) * support macos "sudden termination" ([671fdab](671fdab)), closes [/developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo#1651129](https://github.com//developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/processinfo/issues/1651129) ### BREAKING CHANGES * bump major version * Instead of asking the OS about the state of the whole system on trigger (what we do today; hard to do fast), or asking the state of the whole system on a timer (what HyperSwitch does today; inaccurate) - instead of one of 2 approaches, v3 observes the Accessibility events such as "an app was launched", "a window was closed". This means we build a cache as we receive these events in the background, and when the user trigger the app, we can show accurate state of the windows instantly. Of course there is no free lunch, so this approach has its own issues. However from my work on it from the past week, I'm very optimistic! The thing I'm the most excited about actually is not the perf (because on my machine even v2 is instant; I have a recent macbook and no 4k displays), but the fact that we will finally have the thumbnails in order of recently-used to least-recently-used, instead of the order of their stack (z-index) on the desktop. It's a big difference! There are many more limitations that are no longer applying also with this approach.
First of all, thank you for this great app, I really like it!
However, on my 2016 MacBook Pro, getting the UI to show up feels very sluggish, even though I set the delay to 0ms. After investigating the code a bit and running some tests, it seems like recomputing the thumbnails every time the UI shows up is quite expensive.
In my testing I had around 10 windows open and the following lines of code resulted in around 200ms of time:
alt-tab-macos/alt-tab-macos/ui/Application.swift
Lines 151 to 154 in 7ff17b5
Most of that time was spent in the thumbnail function of
OpenWindow. A few suggestions on how this could be fixed:The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: