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jigish
slate
Objective-C2011–2024
jigish / slate

slate

A window management application (replacement for Divvy/SizeUp/ShiftIt)

64Distinct people
71Mentions
7Explicit recommenders
7.8KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A window management application (replacement for Divvy/SizeUp/ShiftIt)

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

Another one is called slate: https://github.com/jigish/slate Very flexible, my favorite feature is that configs can be written in JS, here's mine:…

tnajdek used a recommendation phrase. 7 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 6:59:22 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year71 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2011-12-20 19:13:10 UTC to 2024-06-11 02:13:22 UTC.

051015202011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20112012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 2 submissions, 6 comments2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 22 mentions; 1 submissions, 21 comments2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 17 mentions; 0 submissions, 17 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 0 submissions, 5 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 0 submissions, 6 comments20172018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20112011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20122012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC826
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC22121
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC17017
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC505
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC606
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
About Slate Slate is a window management application similar to Divvy and SizeUp (except better and free!). Originally written to replace them due to some limitations in how each work, it attempts to overcome them by simply being extremely configurable. As a result, it may be a bit daunting to get configured, but once it is done, the benefit is huge. Slate currently works on Mac OS X 10.6 and above Summary of Features Highly customizable Bind keystrokes to: move and/or resize windows directionally focus windows activate preset layouts create, delete, and activate snapshots of the current state of windows Set default layouts for different monitor configurations which will activate when that configuration is detected. Window Hints: an intuitive way to change window focus [Beta] A better, more customizable, application switcher. Credits Big thanks to philc for the Window Hints idea (and initial implementation) as well as plenty of other suggestions and improvement ideas. Using Slate Installing Slate NEW Installation Instructions Note: You must turn on the Accessibility API by checking System Preferences > Universal Access > Enable access for assistive devices Direct Download .dmg .tar.gz Terminal Just run this in your terminal: cd /Applications && curl http://www.ninjamonkeysoftware.com/slate/versions/slate-latest.tar.gz | tar -xz Configuring Slate NEW: You may now use a ".slate.js" file to configure slate using JavaScript. This allows for much more complex and dynamic configurations than the normal slate configuration style below. You can check out the documentation for this here. Slate is configured using a ".slate" file in the current user's home directory. Configuration is loaded upon running Slate. You can also re-load the config using the "Load Config" menu option on the status menu (use this at your own risk. It is better to simply restart Slate). Note: If no ".slate" file exists in the current user's home directory, the default config file will be used. Configuration is split into the following directives: config (for global configurations) alias (to create alias variables) layout (to configure layouts) default (to default certain screen configurations to layouts) bind (for key bindings) source (to load configs from another file) Note: # is the comment character. Anything after a # will be ignored. ###Expressions### Some directives allow parameters that can be expressions. The following strings will be replaced with the appropriate values when using expressions: screenOriginX = target screen's top left x coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs) screenOriginY = target screen's top left y coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs) screenSizeX = target screen's width screenSizeY = target screen's height windowTopLeftX = window's current top left x coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs) windowTopLeftY = window's current top left y coordinate (should not be used in Window Hints configs) windowSizeX = window's width windowSizeY = window's height newWindowSizeX = window's new width (after resize, only usable in topLeftX and topLeftY, should not be used in configs) newWindowSizeY = window's new height (after resize, only usable in topLeftX and topLeftY, should not be used in configs) windowHintsWidth = the value of the windowHintsWidth config (only usable in windowHintsTopLeftX and windowHintsTopLeftY) windowHintsHeight = the value of the windowHintsHeight config (only usable in windowHintsTopLeftX and windowHintsTopLeftY) In addition to the variables above, expressions can be used with the following functions and operators: + e.g. 1+1 = 2 - e.g. 1-1 = 0 * e.g. 2*2 = 4 / e.g. 4/2 = 2 ** e.g. 3**2 = 9 sum e.g. sum({1,2,3}) = 6 count e.g. count({4,5,6}) = 3 min e.g. min({1,3,5}) = 1 max e.g. max({1,3,5}) = 5 average e.g. average({1,2,3,4}) = 2.5 median e.g. median({1,2,3,10,15}) = 3 stddev e.g. stddev({1,2,3,4,5}) = 1.4142135623730951 sqrt e.g. sqrt(9) = 3.0 log e.g. log(100) = 2.0 ln e.g. ln(8) = 2.0794415416798357 exp e.g. exp(2) = 7.3890560989306504 (this is "e**parameter") floor e.g. floor(1.9) = 1.0 ceiling e.g. ceiling(1.1) = 2.0 abs e.g. abs(-1) = 1 trunc e.g. trunc(1.1123123123) = 1.0 random e.g. random() = 0.20607629744336009 (random float between 0 and 1) randomn e.g. randomn(10) = 4 (random integer between 0 and parameter-1) Note: When using expressions spaces are not allowed! The config Directive The config directive follows the following format: config name value List of allowed configs Example: config defaultToCurrentScreen true Note: the .slate file is read top-down directives that come before config directives may not have the config applied. As such, it is best to put config directives at the top of your .slate file. The alias Directive The alias directive follows the following format: alias name value When you set an alias, you can refer to it in any directive (sequentially after that alias directive) by referencing like ${name}. Example: alias bot-right-2nd-mon move screenOriginX+2*screenSizeX/3;screenOriginY+screenSizeY/2 screenSizeX/3;screenSizeY/2 1 Will allow you to use ${bot-right-2nd-mon} as a reference to move screenOriginX+2*screenSizeX/3;screenOriginY+screenSizeY/2 screenSizeX/3;screenSizeY/2 1 in any directive following the alias (including other alias directives) The layout Directive The layout directive follows the following format: layout name 'app name':OPTIONS operations Where: name = the name you want to use to reference the layout 'app name' = single-quoted name of the application to add to the layout **or** BEFORE or AFTER OPTIONS = a comma separated list of options for this application (cannot be used with BEFORE or AFTER) operations = a pipe separated list of operations (move, resize, pus
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

5 sources
I do most of my development work on OS X and Linux, but for desktop environment, I would hands down use nothing else other than OS X. I just love the integration. Everything looks nice (yes I even like Yosemite), the system is very stable, I can go days without so much as a restart, it doesn't break after I install a package from a package manager, the upgrade process is seamless, the hardware is second to none (even Linus Torvalds agrees), and I can always get help from the Apple Store if something goes wrong. Some of these things you can get with Windows/Linux, you can actually get pretty close, but you never seem to get them all. The hardware and software integration on Linux seems to be really iffy, even if you get Linux to dual boot on OS X. The hardware support isn't there unless you compile your own kernel, which you have to get (i
Read the rest
f it's a newer system) an unstable version of, the touchpad gesture support isn't as nice, the whole OS doesn't look as nice as OS X, and you miss out on the integration between iOS, which is really important to me, at least. OS X is a proper Unix system, so any Linux command line tool will also run on OS X. And you actually get the basic tools out of the box (vim, ruby, python, zsh, tmux, perl, etc, etc). If not, you can get a really good package manager in the form of homebrew, and while it's not as powerful as apt-get, it's pretty much all I want from a system package manager. I am also not a big fan of managing windows or using a tiling window manager, I don't even use them when I'm on Linux. I actually prefer using OS X's default Mission Control/Expose behavior (I know.). I toyed around with Moom, Slate (https://github.com/jigish/slate) but gave it up. I don't like windows to snap, that's an absolute asinine behavior that seems to be the default on Linux desktops these days, that I always have to unset. I never knew why anyone would be a fan of it, unfortunately, most people are. I just have my terminal run tmux and live there. Command+Tab is enough for me. That all said (sorry if the above turned out to be a bit of a rant), Linux desktop environments are slowly getting much better, I'm really liking the look of Plasma and Gnome 3 (although that huge chrome, seriously?), and Elementary OS is easily the best Linux distro I've used.
In OS X vs. Linux?

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