Avdi,

I mostly work in other Smalltalk environments than Pharo, like VA Smalltalk. It has native windows and so the ability to switch between windows using alt-tab is there. I must admit that there is a certain threshold in the number of open windows when this is not really helpful any more. I tend to hit that number pretty fast in a typical Smalltalk coding/debugging sessions.

Things have changed in Win 7, because there I can use the window manager to close the windows right in the window switcher. That makes perfect sense if you have 15 inspectors open, none of which shows current data or instances any more. Or if one of them does, I can't decide which one ;-)

So sometimes I wish for features like "close all windows of this kind" to kill all inspectors, for example.

What I want to say with this that I am not really using alt-tab to switch between windows, but rather to kill a few to come down to a sensible number ;-) But I understand why you miss it. For Pharo, there is a special problem: it is its own windowing environment, so it should probably better not use the O/S' key combination to switch its windows, right?

Joachim


Am 16.05.15 um 22:11 schrieb Tudor Girba:
Hi Avdi,

Welcome.

As the others mentioned, this part of Pharo is not at all ideal. Please bare with us.

Cheers,
Doru



On Sat, May 16, 2015 at 12:52 AM, Avdi Grimm <avdi@avdi.org> wrote:
Hey folks! I've dabbled with smalltalk here and there over the years, but recently I've settled in to learn Pharo in earnest. A few of you might have seen the videos I've been putting up; they seem to be making the rounds on Twitter. I just want to say I've felt really welcomed by all the people who have commented with helpful tips, or offered to help with my exploration :-)

I've run into my first big blocker as a newcomer. Like many programmers I'm a fan of keeping my hands on the keyboard. Now, I'm more flexible on this than some. I recognize that Pharo is a visual environment, and it makes sense to explore it with a mouse. And some interactions just make more sense with a mouse.

That said, no matter what windowing environment I'm in, I find the ability to quickly cycle between windows without leaving the keyboard pretty crucial. One Windows or Ubuntu I would normally do this with Alt-Tab or Super-Tab. On MacOS it's Cmd-Tab.

I've been trying to figure out how to do this in Pharo. I've looked for answers with Google, SO, and on IRC, and I've come up blank. I'm starting to think it can't be done.

So, I've come here for your help. Is there a way to cycle between windows? Or is anyone working on it? Or, perhaps, am I missing an element of the Pharo programming workflow which renders it unneeded?

Many thanks,

--
Avdi



--
www.tudorgirba.com

"Every thing has its own flow"


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