Enilnomi

Here's the complete text of the entry you were just reading. To return to the whole blog, click the Blogolalia button at left.

Jag-wire

Jaguar first impressions (new to X, too ;-)
A couple months ago, I installed 10.2.6 on the iMac(CRT)/600...figured that using the Apache server would be much more convenient than uploading endless Perl files to a host during script debugging ;-) So far my uses for X have only been Apache, IE, Moz, Safari, BBEdit, Photoshop, iTunes, Terminal, and Sys Prefs. As far as the system goes, it's fine.

But lord, that Finder sucks.....

---

With any luck, I won't be programming the Mac Toolbox anymore, so whatever Apple wants to do with that kernel and its extensions, that's great. But I've been using Finder since 1985, and certain expectations have been built in that time -- by Apple. The OS X Finder is a true disappointment; an actual step backwards. Here's the list of gripes from people for whom I've removed OSX:

Prefs

• There's no way to exit-without-changing System prefs. For instance, there's no way Mac-like way to ignore noodlings with your Highlight Color; how many users will know to first save their current color to the palette at the bottom of the color picker window before trying out variations....?

Help

• Help seems pretty weak... for things like Terminal and 'nixie stuff. (Help Viewer should be able to present the man pages, for instance.)
• Help is a PITA if I'm online via modem. A simple query to Help with a 44K connection makes me wait about 45 seconds while the mothership checks in; then when the "Hey, there's new stuff" page appears, Help viewer's Back button doesn't get me back to what I asked for in the first place.
• No button to "stop" the Help viewer. (See above.)
• Help viewer pointer is ill-behaved, such as presenting an I-beam pointer when hovering over a link.

Finding

• Certain searches using date modified produce nothing but endless whirligigs.
• Find is something of a joke... while it's nice to be able to specify multiple naming conditions, I don't see any way to save custom searches. I can't even resize the initial Find window to make it easy to access checkmarks for the 8 volumes I have on this machine without scrolling.
• Can't save Finds? Huh?

Desktop

• The grid is horribly large; like Desktop by Playskool. There's still not as much control over the grid as there was back in 7/8 days.
• The mouse is still holding onto arrow-clicks in list views, so that the next click in a different window (or desktop) becomes a double-click. This has been around since at least OS8.6, and never been fixed.
• I can't reposition the "Network" folder? (Not even a half-inch!) What's up with that?

Filing

• Still no type of springback or DefaultFolder action in open/save dialogs. I should be able to click on a folder and have its contents listed in the open file dialog box.
• Dependence on extensions/deprecating Type & Creator codes... everyone I work with has come to use their own "private" extensions as an aid to categorizing files, such as "some_perl_file.plugin" for Perl files that act as plugins -- but Finder sees them as Netscape plugins. This makes for lots more dragging down to the Dock to hit the right app...

Menus

• Not enough Command-keys in menu items; no System Prefs way to modify menus.
• The Apple menu was easy to hit -- just slam mouse to topleft. The dock has to be navigated.
• Contextual menus in desktop aren't confirmed with a pointer icon until the mouse is moved just a touch.

Dock

• For me, the Dock is a poor substitute for the old Application menu. With the Dock, I have to mouse around the whole bottom of the screen to activate/switch apps; it was a much shorter & easier trip to the Application menu.
• As it fills up, the Dock only shrinks icons; it doesn't add a second row or offer left/right scrolling. If I've got 40 things in the Dock (say, 15 apps and a bunch of "minimized" items), the icons are so small that I can't tell what they are, which means more mousing.
• When Terminal window maximizes, it doesn't respect the dock at all -- grows right under it

Finder windows

• A list view sorted by date waits to re-order itself until you "touch" a changed file with the mouse.
• Dates aren't always right unless you manually update the window or "touch" a changed file with the mouse.
• As well, Finder doesn't seem smart enough to reduce double scroll arrows at top and bottom to single scroll arrows to accommodate short panes, such as in the volume selection pane of Find window.
• I can drag things out of windows and the item will never hilite.
• Not being able to grab the sides of windows is a drag (or, not a drag, in this case ;-)
• "Back' and "Forward" don't dim when there's no more backwarads or forwards when in text view.
• Create a folder in List view; can't immediately edit the name. This is a Mac?
• In List and Column views, there's no way to accelerate an item name's editability.
• Cmd-press on foldername in list view to see the folder's place in hierarchy scrolls to the top of the list when released.
• NO LABELS! WTF! Everyone I work with has years' worth of work which has been organized using Labels; suddenly these files are non-navigable.
• In the old Finder, you could "negate" an untoward window drag by continuing the drag to the top of the screen; releasing the mouse then let the window snap back to where it had been. Nothing like that in X, and no Undo.