Future Development Status Update

Does anyone have a status updates on the progress of Total Spaces 2 in light of changes in mac OS Sierra. Did it open up any new avenues for dealing with SIP issues, or create new ones, or kept all the same?

Do you have any sense for future updates and whether or not they will cause further obstacles for Total Spaces? Are you working on restructuring to get around current and possible future issues with TotalSpaces as mac os evolves down the road? Feel free to discuss in technical detail if you feel comfortable doing so.

Final Question: If the project does hit a snag (hopefully not) and is decided to be no longer actively developed has anyone talked about possibly open sourcing the project or petitioning Apple to add a native feature similar to total spaces to mac os? Reason I am asking: I am realizing my workflow is very dependent on TotalSpaces and I would be sad if changes came in down the road that made it hard for me to continue using it. In this scenario I would be happy to contribute towards maintaining the project since I find it so useful.

Thanks!

Does Total Spaces 2 need SIP changed for Sierra? I love it so much that I am willing to take the security risk just to use it but if it is no longer required I would like to fix SIP to a supported configuration.

I have been a Mac OS X user for over a decade and every time I find a decent desktop switcher Apple breaks it.

Total Spaces 2 is the best of the bunch (and there were several) and I would like to see it continue into the future.

Of course Apple is deaf to the desires of the user community, imo, changing OS X (macOS) so it more closely resembles a smart phone operating system.

I’m the same way here… where TS2 has a great impact on my workflow than almost any other app that supports the actual apps used for producing that work. I’m still using 10.9 here at work on my dual-monitor setup simply because I haven’t had enough time to test it on 10.10/11.11 to ensure that it won’t break my workflows. So far, on my 10.10 portable at home, things are working well, but I haven’t been able to connect it to an external monitor to ensure that that portion of the functionality is solid as well. btw, the ability for my external monitor to be independent of the grid on the main monitor is critical to that workflow as well. (so if anyone has any feedback on that, feel free to ping me and let me know)

I’d doubt greatly that Apple could be petitioned to incorporate it if BA decides to give it up. However, Apple has many times in the past just rolled out their own version of something to get around purchasing another company or their IP. I doubt this wouldn’t be one of those times as well.

I too would have no issues with the SIP process if it meant keeping my workflow alive. I wouldn’t recommend it to friends and relatives who might not consider the security issues of everything else they did at other times, always… but I’d be willing to take that risk on for myself as long as it keeps working.

Sorry for being so quiet lately. Yes, I have a plan to move TotalSpaces and TotalFinder forward, and to revive some older products (TotalTerminal, Asepses) as well.

There were zero noticeable changes to SIP in Sierra, which comforts me as it hopefully means “this is as bad as it gets” for apps like TF/TS. Also, I haven’t heard any reports of SIP spontaneously re-enabling after updating/upgrading the OS, so things are looking pretty stable.

You’re clever. Yes, the current plan is to pull out the SIP constrained code from TS/TF/etc into a single injector “app”, so you only need to install it once. The installation is basically: disable sip, install injector, reenable sip. After that, TotalFinder, TotalSpaces, and any new products we create will all make use of a single injector which you only need to deal with once (hopefully).

If you are a developer and want to help, I would love help planning and/or implementing what I described above. Feel free to email me directly to discuss.

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Yes, TotalSpaces still requires the SIP change, and I don’t see that changing in the future unfortunately.

Don’t worry, I’ve personally pledged to leave the mac platform and organize a protest if apps like TotalSpaces become impossible. Even just typing that out was difficult, so hopefully my resolve isn’t put to the test :stuck_out_tongue: