Last year I wrote about how I managed my windows under OS X, Windows, and Linux. I’m a big fan of having an orderly layout and try to use grid managers. Since then I’ve changed jobs and now my main machine is an MacBook Pro running OS X Mavericks with two 27 inch cinema displays. As a result I’ve started experimenting with more OS X window managers. After trying a few out I’m going to stick with Phoenix.

Before Phoenix

Last year I was satisfied using Spectacle. It is (or at least was, I haven’t used it in a while) easy to install and had good defaults. I’d still recommend it for most people.

At the recommendation from a reader, I switched to Slate. Slate has a ton of features and I barely scratched the surface in how I used it. I used it as a replacement for Spectacle and didn’t touch any of the advanced features. Before I had the urge to explore the advanced features I ended up becoming dissatisfied with Slate. I ran into an issue where after running for a while (talking at least a week) it would start to respond slowly. I’d try to move a window to another monitor and it wouldn’t move. Eventually I’d be in another process and the command would register sending whatever window I was currently focused on to another monitor.

Introducing Phoenix

I was looking for solutions to Slate’s unresponsiveness when I stumbled on Phoenix. I was drawn in by its stated goal; it “aims for efficiency and a very small footprint.” The fact that it is still being actively developed was also a huge selling point. Knowing that any bugs I find have a potential to be fixed is great.

Phoenix provides a JavaScript API that allows you to interact with your running applications or launch applications. It doesn’t provide anything out of the box; it is up to you to make it useful by writing your own (or taking another persons) configuration.

This is a double-edged sword. This means you get exactly the features you want. It also means you might spend significant amounts of time figuring out how to get the features you want.

Luckily there are examples that you can use as a starting point. Browsing through the examples is a great way of becoming familiar with what is possible and can be inspiring.

My configuration is relatively minimal. I’ve written code to move windows between monitors (rotating between three added some complexity to this), start or focus certain applications, and resize windows. This is enough for me to feel efficient.

I encourage you to use a tool to help manage your windows. Personally I think Phoenix is pretty great and don’t mind tinkering with my configuration and strongly recommend it. As a bonus it is a young project where the maintainer is open to suggestions. If you have an idea for a useful feature it has a possibility of being added pretty quickly.