Switching Between Windows

[tygre]

Hi there!

In my quest to develop on and for my NeXT, I've been learning Emacs, which can have many windows opened, which is pretty useful, in addition to several terminals to compile, etc. However, I'm must use the mouse to switch between these windows, which isn't very convenient.

Is there a utility, a "window switcher", to add some shortcut to swap between windows? Like "Alt-Tab" on Windows...

Thanks!

[tygre]

PS. Ah, and how can I save the whole screen (or a single window) as an image?

[ptek]

PS. Ah, and how can I save the whole screen (or a single window) as an image?

You can use the following app to save in .tiff format:

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/NextApps/Grab.app


[tygre]

Thanks, @ptek , for Grab!

Would you have some suggestions for "Alt-TAB"?

[ptek]

Thanks, @ptek , for Grab!

Would you have some suggestions for "Alt-TAB"?

That's a good question. I don't know. Even on windows I don't use "Alt-TAB" as much as I used to compared to late 90s-early 00s.

[tygre]

Hi @ptek !

Maybe here's a good idea of a new tool to develop

Cheers!

[ptek]

Is there a utility, a "window switcher", to add some shortcut to swap between windows? Like "Alt-Tab" on Windows...

Thanks!

Hi I just checked NeXTSTEP Release 3 User's Guide (https://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/next/NeXTSTEP_User_Guide_1994.pdf) and could not see anything on page 76 of 404 of the PDF Switching to another application.

EDIT: Try pressing the "command key"+"up key" or "command key"+"down key". This seems to work on Previous and NS33. I found this as I was trying to scroll up and down in Edit.app

[tygre]

Hi @ptek !

Thanks for the keyboard shortcuts, but they don't do exactly what "Alt+TAB" would do in Windows. They cycle through the windows, bringing the different windows to the front one after the other, but they don't change the focus: the same application keeps the focus, still requiring a mouse click...

Or am I missing something

Cheers!

[jeffburg]

As far as I can remember, Next did not implement Command Tab to switch apps the way Mac OS X does. However, that still would not help you as you want to switch Windows in the same App. In Mac OS X this is Command (⌘) + Tick (`). However, I highly doubt Next implemented this considering they don't even implement Command Tab.

[ptek]

  You are correct tygre, that only moves the window above or below which is also useful sometimes when you are trying to copy or type something and you can't read the text properly.  You may have to keyboard bang and hope you find the combination.

It seems on the Keyboard app:

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/NextDeveloper/Demos/Keyboard.app/Keyboard
That when you open the Info Panel and click on the app icon or the author's name it changes the app icon to a .tiff of the author.

[ptek]

You might have to edit the file /usr/lib/NextStep/windowPackage.ps

The version with NS3.3 (https://discmaster.textfiles.com/view/8833/NeXTSTEP%203.3%20User%20(m68k,%20i386).img/NeXTSTEP%203.3%20User%20Intel.iso/usr/lib/NextStep/windowPackage.ps) contains no comments (Probably to speed up processing) so you will need to get the copy from NS2.1 which contains comments. Edit at your own risk.

EDIT: (2026 May 15) Added link to NS3.3 windowPackage.ps, could not find a link to a 2.1 browsable iso on the textfiles.com website.

[ZombiePhysicist]

Very cool, @ptek   

Feels almost small talk'esque to b\e able to use postscript to alter the behavior of the windowing.

[ptek]

@tygre here is the file windowPackage.ps from NS2.1 which has comments so it should make it easier for you to understand. Ripped with NFS on Previous.

[tygre]

Hi there!

Sorry for the silence, I wasn't notified of all your answers

Thanks a lot for the files and suggestions, I'll try to understand what this file is doing...

In the meantime, another question: I can't figure out anymore how to become root in the Terminal again... I kind of recall that I was able to start a new zsh (or bash) as root, but can't recall how 

Cheers!
Tygre

[ptek]

In the meantime, another question: I can't figure out anymore how to become root in the Terminal again... I kind of recall that I was able to start a new zsh (or bash) as root, but can't recall how 

Cheers!
Tygre

  I always login as me by default (no password) so whenever I want to swap to root in the terminal I do:

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su -
  I have to do that in every new terminal I open if I need to be root.