I think the parent refers to MacOS/Gnome treating alt-tab as a "switch program" shortcut, not a "switch window" shortcut. I find it very convenient to press "alt-tab" to go to the previously-focused window, or "alt-tab-tab" to the even-previously focused window.
It's much easier for me to think in terms of context switches (go back to my N-previous activity) than have to consciously evaluate whether i want to switch window of the same app or switch app.
That sounds like a total nightmare to have the same keyboard shortcut do 2 different things. Cmd-Tab switches app, Cmd-` switches windows in an app. I just don't understand how that is difficult. Then again, some people find math hard, others find it easy. To each their own.
This difference almost certainly has its roots back in the dawn of the original Macintosh, which could only run one application at a time and context-switching or Multi-Tasking had to be explicitly added to the OS after the fact[0]. Windows, which was developed later, was designed as an inherently multi-application OS from the beginning. Today, it's pretty much only in the windows management where you still see the vestiges of those original differences.
It's not difficult, but why do they make it difficult to "just go to the previous window", whose default shortcut was alt-tab on almost all systems (windows + gnome + kde)?
Maybe you have a specific workflow with a specific set of apps you use in a specific order in which case your brain is hard-wired to know whether you'd like to switch app or window within an app. I personally find it much easier when i don't have to think about it and can just "go back" to what i was doing previously.
Way to be condescending. The presented opinion is clearly reasonable, as is yours.
Next, you want to show all of the windows from a single task, each one at the highest focus relative to all other windows of the same application.
Only being able to switch applications, rather than individual windows, makes this a tedious, manual process.
I hear you say, "just use..."
- Multiple workspaces: does not play well with changing multi-monitor setups. Does not persist across restarts. (Last time I tried anyway)
- Expose: this is not a keyboard-shortcut friendly interface. Windows-style alt-tab lists are predictable and linear, Expose window arrangements are not.
I just want the interface I already know, that works perfectly for this situation.
So it seems to me that Cmd-Tab is less of the offender to you than the app not behaving as you prefer when there are no active windows. Seems like your ire is slightly misdirected.
