When comparing zsh vs Better Window Manager, the Slant community recommends zsh for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” zsh is ranked 53rd while Better Window Manager is ranked 74th. The most important reason people chose zsh is:
When you start typing a command, you can press the tab key and it will complete the command you started typing. If there are multiple potential commands, you can choose which one to run by simply pressing tab again. Case-insensitive by default, too.
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Pros
Pro Interactive autocompletion
When you start typing a command, you can press the tab key and it will complete the command you started typing. If there are multiple potential commands, you can choose which one to run by simply pressing tab again. Case-insensitive by default, too.
Pro Powerful community-driven tools via oh-my-zsh
Oh-my-zsh is a community-driven framework, which helps users with their zsh configuration and plugins. 400 plugins, 200+ themes and auto-updates to always be up to date.
Pro Autocomplete for options
Zsh intelligently determines if you are trying to complete a file path or an option, and pressing tab after typing -
will reliably bring up a list of options.
Pro Good bash compatibility
Things you've learned using bash will largely apply to zsh. Scripts written in bash will run with little to no modification.
Pro Safer variable behaviour
Unlike Bash, zsh does not split unquoted variables by default, making it less error-prone.
Pro Recursive globbing
ls **/*.log
for example is supported by ZSH.
Pro Great install procedure
Zsh will take you through a procedure which is roughly 30 minutes in length before during install. Through this procedure it asks you to set different options and customize the shell the way you want it to. Most of these settings are also found in other shells, but to customize them you have to go dig configuration files while zsh allows you to do it in the beginning.
Pro Shared histories
If you spend a lot of time in the terminal, most likely you will have several terminal windows open. Zsh has great support for command line histories. The history is unique and shared through all the different instances.
Pro Smart escaping
Zsh can determine the context of the command you're typing in and determine if it should escape characters if you're typing in a URI.
Pro Pipe output to a temporary file:
Some programs don't support loading from stdin, but ZSH can store outputs to a temporary file, example: unzip =(curl http://example.com/someZipFile.zip)
Pro Faster spelling correction
Zsh' s correct (or correctall) is vastly superior to Bash's attempt at spelling correction.
Pro FinderMinder support
FinderMinder allows you to specify where (position) and what size you want newly opened Finder windows to appear. The default Finder behavior is to remember the last position and size for every window, but this can be frustrating if you already know where you want every window to appear (for example, centered at 800x600). FinderMinder must be running for window reposition and resize to take place.
FinderMinder must continue running in the background for window reposition and resize to take place, so click the "Hide" button to dismiss the preferences and keep FinderMinder running. Simply re-launch FinderMinder to access the preferences again or to quit the app.
Pro Cheap and has a free trial
The app costs just $3 and offers a free trial for testing it out before buying.
Pro Has almost all the features needed in a window manager app
I've tried almost every app on this list. I thought it was amazing how many there were out there by the time I finally stopped experimenting and searching for the one I liked most. I chose Optimal Layout mostly because it was sufficiently extendable and felt lighter to use than the others. There were lighter ones, but those were very limited in their features and customizability.
Pro It's free! Which is fair as it manages only windows for Finder.
The price is right! It comes from a great source of developers who already have window manager apps on this page's list. I am not sure what they plan to do with this app in the future, whether to keep it light and by itself and work in conjunction with their other window managers, or add this feature solely to one of their other fully featured window manager apps.
Cons
Con Not fully compatible with bash
There is a small chance you may have a bash script that doesn't work in zsh, although this is very very rare and most developers will never run into any issues.
Con Requires a lot of configuration to be used fully
Zsh requires a lot of tinkering with configuration files and downloading plugins in order to be able to do tasks which other shells may be able to do out of the box.
Con Defaults are unfriendly for a long-time bash user
Expect to find a configuration you like (or use the configuration utility) to set reasonable preferences. Default zsh interaction is different enough to make you stutter through what used to be familiar workflows.