Many Tricks
If you’re a Witch user, you’ll want to check for updates today, as we’ve released Witch 3.1. (Alternatively, you can just download it directly.) This .1 update brings a quite a few bug fixes, operational improvements, and some new features to our window switching app.
The most important news about this release is that Peter’s managed to identify and squash an annoying memory leak that was causing Witch to use up prodigious amounts of RAM on some users’ systems. Version 3.1 not only won’t take more RAM over time, it seems to use much less in general. I’ve been running it for a couple days now, and RAM usage is stable at about 15MB, despite heavy usage. (This will vary by machine and number of open windows.)
We’ve also managed to fix a problem with a fast-cycling Command-Tab switcher (for those not using Command-Tab to activate Witch). Speaking of Command-Tab, if you are using it to activate Witch, it should now work much more reliably than it did in version 3.0.
On the new feature front, we’ve added a tiny delay so that if you use Witch to ‘fast switch’ between two open windows, the Witch panel won’t appear—this is very similar to how the Mac OS X switcher works. Also, hidden windows now have a slightly translucent icon in the switcher panel, as they do in the Mac OS X Dock if you’ve implemented this hint (one of my faves).
We’ve also cleaned up how Witch handles Parallels’ windows in Coherence and Crystal modes (it’s not perfect, but it’s much better than it was, and it’s about all we can do), and tweaked the window width calculation to account for programs with extra long names, such as Logitech Harmony Remote Software.
There are many other small changes, including updated help (click the ? icon on the Witch System Preferences panel), and a couple of semi-secret hidden preferences (shhh!). You can find those, and all the other changes, on the Witch release notes page. So get updated, and as always, please let me know if you have any issues with this release. You can do that via email, or on our support site.
[…] There’s also a blog entry with more detail. […]
Dudes, that’s schweeeeeeeeeeet :-D
Nice point release :-) Awesome to see Witch and other Many Tricks software getting proper love and care!
Whilst I’m grateful for the speedy .1 release, the feature that most interests me still doesn’t appear to have been addressed. How are you guys getting on with making all windows on all spaces accessible from any space? You mentioned that you thought there was a way to do it – has any progress been made? It’s one of my main reasons for buying Witch.
It’s still on our list, still at the top of our new features list, but we had to get this out the door, primarily to fix the memory leak. Spaces support is also a much more complex “add” than these simple changes. So yes, we’re still on it, we still hope to get it done…but I can’t give you a timeframe.
-rob.
one feature is the option to change the display have the icon horizontally lined up and not vertically. I was using 2.0 and just ended up just learning to use SL’s expose instead of upgrading (and still use) witch.
I’m not quite sure how this would work — lined up horizontally, you couldn’t fit more than a handful of windows before they’d have to wrap, or the size would become so small as to be unusable.
How would you envision this looking when you have (not unusual for myself and others) 20 to 30 windows open?
-rob.
What I could envision (not meaning that I’d wish for it, but I’d have to see it before I decide), would be using columns:
One horizontal column for each app, and the windows of each app could be ordered vertical. I have no idea, though, what effort would be necessary to implement this.
And forgot: This would probably only make sense if windows are ordered by application, otherwise the problems you noted (having to wrap or size too small) would happen.
With 3.0, I could use left command+tab to launch Witch, while right command+tab would still launch the default app switcher. This “bug” has been fixed in 3.1 it seems. That’s too bad… It was very convenient.
It was a bug, and it needed to be fixed – several users noticed and complained about the problem.
-rob.
@Jasper: Spaces support will be ready soon. It’s already working in my super-secret private Witch 3.1.1 build (which might turn into Witch 3.2 eventually), I just have to work out some kinks.
@Olivier: Ha! I just knew some users had already turned this behavior into something useful. We’ll bring this back as a hidden default, I promise.
@Peter: That’s very exciting news, I didn’t expect you’d be able to implement it that fast. Now I’m experiencing feature envy :-D
Does Witch now work for X11 (or XQuartz) windows too? That is the most annoying problem for me…
You know, I’ve never even tried to use it with X11 apps. I’ll do some testing in a bit.
-rob.
X11 update: Witch can’t work with X11, because X11 doesn’t use Universal Access in the manner we need it to. Sorry.
-rob.