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Maybe a little annoying, but not useless. I think that the HUD is easier than the old behavior, because of the same 'unpredictable' nature. If you have a long-ish list of keyboards and input methods (as few as 3 is enough), with the HUD you don't have to wait for each to activate and show its icon. And, since the order is not always the same as shown in the menu (most recent is next - this may be the unpredictable nature you mean, which is not really unpredictable), with the old behavior you'd have to see each icon to know when you reach your desired input/keyboard.
I got used to the Adobe issue long ago and always hit space first, then Apple, when I want to zoom. It's not really a 'command' shortcut, so it doesn't matter which order you press the keys.
Upgraded from 10.5 and the language switcher behaves exactly as in 10.5 - no need to release space and no HUD if I keep cmd+space pressed.
I never understood why Apple assigned command-space to language switcher. For most people it will conflict with Spotlight. I changed it to Shift-Command-Space.
But I actually like the HUD, it could be a little 'fancier', or graphically pleasing. But in general it's a good idea. You don't need the menu bar icon. But even if you use the menu bar icon, you don't have to move your eyes up from whatever you're doing to see which language you're on.
But I guess it's all a matter of habit.
Just FYI, the Cmd-Space shortcut for keyboard layout switching was used as far back as System 7 (maybe earlier, but I didn't use multiple scripts before then), so it long predates Spotlight.
The first thing I do on a new Mac is switch the Spotlight shortcut off so that keyboard switching works like it should ;-)
I think the new hud menu is far from useless… quite the contrary; the old behavior was what was useless for me, because I can’t stand colored icons in the menu bar and therefore I don’t like that indicator lurking up there. Now I always know which layout I’m switching to.
But without the flag you don't know in which layout you are at the moment.
I figured out that there is a simpler way to do that.
I just switched shortcuts for 'Select the previous input source' and 'Select next input source'.
So 'previous' is now Opt-Cmd-Space. And 'next' is Cmd-Space.
And it works. When I press Cmd-Space input source changes immediately. And when I press Opt-Cmd-Space and hold id I can see HUD menu.
'Next input source' does not bring up the HUD.
That explains why I've never seen the HUD :)
Thank you so much for this tip. This is a lifesaver!
Is switching the language input command-space, or is invoking Spotlight command-space? Do they both default to the same thing?