If Mac OS X has a secret shame, it's the Finder (2003)

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/

by Wowfunhappy • 7 years ago

25 22 7 years ago

Have you tried to use Windows Explorer recently? It's maddening! Just dragging files to the "Quick Access" bar will have you pining for Finder.

Rury3• 7 years ago

It has always bothered me that I can't simply click on finder in the dock to bring up a window for the first time (as it'll only toggle what windows are already open).

I have to either right-click on it and select new window, click on file in the menu and drag my mouse to new window, or hide/move what's on my screen to double click on Macintosh HD on the desktop. At least on windows I can simply just click on explorer on the taskbar to bring up a first window.

Wowfunhappy6• 7 years ago

You can also click the Finder icon in the Dock and then ⌘N.

I understand why this bothers you but I do think the current behavior is better than the alternative. I often click the Finder icon to bring my existing Finder windows to the front.

The alternative is to risk creating extra Finder windows the user didn't want, and that's a bad outcome. Too many windows get hard to manage, especially when you're not sure where some of them came from.

tonyedgecombe• 7 years ago

Cmd-N will open a new Window once Finder is in the foreground.

If you are in Terminal then "open ." will open the current directory in Finder.

I think spotlight will do something similar as well although I have it disabled at the moment.

mcraiha• 7 years ago

Finder is so bad that I had to buy a license of ForkLift 3. Finder is easily the worst default program included in OS X.

Windows Explorer isn't perfect, but at least with that you can ALWAYS see where you are (and open the location of chosen file). You can cut/copy/paste easily with mouse right click. You can create new files with right click.

Wowfunhappy6• 7 years ago

at least with that you can ALWAYS see where you are

Have you tried enabling the path bar in Finder? View → Show Path Bar.

You can cut/copy/paste easily with mouse right click.

Finder lets you copy and paste with a right mouse click. You can't cut, which is occasionally annoying, although I understand why.

You can create new files with right click.

Ah, but you can add that to Finder! Make an automator service that will run the touch command in the front Finder window. It will appear in the right click menu. Or download the one I already made: https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Automator-Quick-Actions/blob/...

I love Automator services! They provide a built-in, native way to add your own functionality to existing Mac apps.

kitsunesoba2• 7 years ago

While you can’t cut, you CAN move via keyboard shortcuts. Just copy the file in question (⌘C), navigate to your desired destination, and move-paste (⌘-Option-V). You can see this shortcut by opening the Edit menu with something on the clipboard while holding down Option.

ksec• 7 years ago

Finder is so bad

I still prefer Windows's Folder First and Name Second layout.

Wowfunhappy6• 7 years ago

I'd encourage everyone to read at least the first few pages of this article before reacting to the title. It was written at a time when OS X was super new, and some of the features requested by the author, like Smart Folders, have been implemented almost verbatim.

He makes a good case for the importance of a "Spacial Finder", but I'm not convinced it would be worth the trade-offs. I like having the same folder open in two windows.

Some parts of the article were a bit hard to follow because I've never used classic Mac OS (discounting some very brief experiences). If anyone would be willing to help put some of his descriptions in context, I'd appreciate it.

masswerk• 7 years ago

Some Classic Mac OS Finder features explained:

Pup-Up Folders: When dragging a Finder window near the bottom edge of the screen, its outline changed (the Classic Finder just displayed a dotted outline while dragging windows to safe display memory) to represent a tabbed window. If the window was released like this, it would change to a tab aligned to the bottom edge of the desktop just wide enough to represent the window title. Clicking this title tab, the window would pop-up to its full size with scrollbars, the title tab centered on the top and two resize handles at either size of the document bar at the top (the one reporting items and folder size). Clicking on the tab again or anywhere outside of the window would minimize the window to its tab again. When dragged away from the bottom edge, a tabbed window would change back to normal behavior. (As mentioned in the article, this feature eventually was discarded in favor of the Dock.)

([Edit] Notably, pup-up folders deviated from any other window behavior on Macintosh as its location wasn't given by its top left corner, but rather by its center axis, to which it was aligned. In this aspect, it was always a bit of an oddity in Mac OS, and, while exceptionally useful, didn't integrate too well to the rest of the interface. Also mind usability aspects, when changing behavior while dragging and by this also switching respective alignment anchors.)

A somewhat similar feature not mentioned in the article were collapsable windows, which collapsed a window to its title bar (either by the special collapse widget at the very right of the title bar or by simply double clicking the title), but which were still freely moveable and stackable on the desktop. (The closest there was on Classic Mac OS to iconizing.)

Classic labels: These were limited to a set of 7 labels, either selectable from the menu bar or by an icon's context menu. Each label had an associated color, which would colorize the icon by a translucent tint in icon and list views. (Wording and colors of these labels were globally configurable in the Finder preferences.) Labels were both a visual hint and a useful sorting criterium in the Finder.

Proxies: Besides the proxy icon in the title bar of a window or document, there was also another use of proxies, namely in the process menu at the very right of the menu bar. This was a tear down menu listing all active applications, which would transform into a floating pallet window, when rorn from the menu bar. Applications would be listed as buttons (a now forgotten optional window view) with the active application shown in depressed/active state. App-buttons would receive drag-and-drop actions like any other representation of an application.

Notably, there was a (somewhat hidden) path view in Finder, namely in the form of drop-down menu appearing on a Cmd-click on a window's title. However, while this could be used for orientation and traversing the hierarchy upwards, this wasn't of use for any sort of pinpoint forward navigation. (The early-Safari snap-back feature in the article's wish list is somewhat related to this.) This is still a feature of Finder windows.

kitsunesoba2• 7 years ago

I’ve never really understood the seemingly widespread dissatisfaction with the Finder in macOS 10.5 and newer. Over the years I’ve used it alongside WinXP, Win7, Win10 and various Linux environments and while the Finder isn’t perfect, I find myself bothered by it much less frequently than with Explorer/Nautilus/Dolphin/etc.

It’s a must to enable the status bar and pathbar (both under the View menu) but after that it’s fine.

Wowfunhappy6• 7 years ago

What do you use the status bar for?

mijkal• 7 years ago

I've used the omnipresent Spotlight as my primary means of navigating macOS for years, greatly reducing my time in Finder.

(Same on iOS / iPadOS and SpringBoard.)

Wowfunhappy6• 7 years ago

Worth noting, Spotlight as we know it today didn't exist when this article was written!

dzhiurgis• 7 years ago

I think nowadays it's iCloud Photos that are disaster

- When your family shared photos getting compressed - fucking mint

- When you can't edit photo on your device, because of indescript error - fucking mint

- When you can't get iCloud link for large videos because it won't "upload" it even it's already on iCloud - fucking mint

- When you can't share iCloud storage with family members that lives abroad - fucking mint

- When "export unmodified originals" does nothing - fucking mint

soganess• 7 years ago

Finder is bad, no argument, but modern macOS (vs OS X) has way more to be ashamed of.

I'm not going to rattle off some list grievances, but sometimes I really am floored by how much of my mac workflow is simply working around macOS because some xyz is either a pain in the youknowwhat to correct or is just plain broken without recourse.

enitihas• 7 years ago

Finder is such a bad file manager that you sometimes start doubting your intelligence, thinking that something so trivial it should be possible, and you are the one not being able to figure out it.

For example, it is the only file manager I have ever used which doesn't show a consistent view of files in a directory. The view sometimes seems to be cached. Let's say I downloaded a file. I can do ls for it from a terminal window. However, finder doesn't see the file. Cp or mv to another folder and boom, finder can see it now.

Also, the search in finder is pathetically bad and totally unintuitive. I sometimes think apple might be internally using something different, that's why they don't realise or care how bad it is.

Off course, all this is valid if you have used other file explorers. If you come from a walled garden without any file system, anything can seem to be a boon, even Finder.

If Mac OS X has a secret shame, it's the Finder (2003)

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