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Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by cake on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @10:53AM (#649174)
Things I wish could be fixed with 10.6

- Cut and paste a file (no you can't with the finder)

- Maximize the windows

- This annoying audio "pop" I can hear when my Macbook's line out is connected to a hifi system and no sound is playing.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by potatolicious on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @02:29PM (#649581)
Add:

- Breadcrumb in Finder Windows. This is uber-annoying.

- Revamped open/save dialogs. What do you mean I can't right click to rename a folder in the save dialog?! What do you mean I can't search for a file in this folder?

Sadly the Finder has nothing on Windows Explorer.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by drewr on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @03:50PM (#649811)
Breadcrumbs in 10.5 are as easy as View -> Show Path Bar, or do you mean something else?
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by dmnd on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @06:39PM (#650141)
The Finder has at least something on Windows Explorer: one thing I always miss on Windows is the ability to drag a file or directory onto an open/save dialog and have the dialog immediately navigate to and select that file or directory. Saves you from repeatedly navigating the filesystem.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by GHFigs on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @10:16PM (#650418)
Slightly related: I recently discovered you can drop a file directly onto file upload fields on web pages without even opening the open dialog.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ellyagg on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @04:14PM (#649883)
Personally, I find column view to be light-years ahead of Explorer, alone.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by jamesbritt on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @12:48AM (#650590)
Wow. I find it near useless.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by xenophanes on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @02:46PM (#649630)
finder has breadcrumbs. cmd-click the folder name on the top of the window. or do cmd-up-arrow.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by Oompa on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @03:43PM (#649796)
That's not really a breadcrumb bar, it's the ability to go up a folder…
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by xenophanes on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @04:20PM (#649897)
you're saying that cmd-up-arrow sucks because you want cmd-click? fine. use cmd-click to see more than one at a time.

and wait a second, it's also showing, constantly, at the bottom of my finder windows. so, look through the preferences and enable that.

if you mean something other than every folder in the path to the current folder by breadcrumbs then you have to clarify.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by gabrielroth on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:11AM (#649205)
You might or might not care, but your first two wishes can be achieved with third-party tools. Path Finder has cut-and-paste for files, and MercuryMover can resize windows to full-screen size.

But the lack of development of the Finder is one of the worst things about OS X. It's been rewritten in Cocoa for Snow Leopard but with only a few minor new features. Hopefully the rewrite is a harbinger of bigger improvements in the next version.

I'm just going to plug Path Finder one more time: it's completely replaced the Finder for me. Info at http://cocoatech.com.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:55AM (#649276)
I tried Path Finder and used it for maybe a month, but too many OS X applications are too tightly integrated with Finder and don't work with PF, such as Time Machine.

Also, PF is buggy. The latest build wouldn't show mounted DMG images :S

I'm hoping that the new Finder brings some improvements, we'll see.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by cake on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:20AM (#649215)
Thanks I'll have a look at Path Finder but I'm always reluctant to add any apps interfering with the Finder.

I've already tried a few freebies to maximize the windows (Stoplight...), none of them would work at 100%.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by randallsquared on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:21AM (#649223)
Completely replaced? It handles the Desktop and SMB UI as well? Those are the only things I really dislike about the Finder, actually.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by gabrielroth on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @02:55PM (#649658)
Yes, it does Desktop and networking. Try the demo and see if it meets your needs.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @04:05PM (#649858)
The replacement desktop is quite good, but their "solution" for the tired SMB UI was to do away with it entirely :D

You just get a list of servers. Selecting one presents you with a dialog box of available shares. Selecting one mounts it. No concept of "browsing" SMB networks exists in PF.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by randallsquared on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @05:04PM (#649997)
No concept of "browsing" SMB networks exists in PF.

That's great, because that's never actually worked for me anyway; I always have to type the IP address I know the share is on. Even then, if I'm on wireless (but not on 100MB ethernet, oddly), I only get one use out of it: if I close that Finder window or don't use it for a bit, the share is closed to me in fact, even though it appears to still be there until I try to use it.

The whole thing is terribly buggy and must be approached in an exact manner (FIRST "eject" any visible shares, THEN cmd-K to bring up the SMB window, type the IP (no hostnames, even though ping, etc works!), wait for about two minutes (literally), then immediately do the auth window when it comes up -- waiting a bit will require restarting the process -- and then immediately get or put whatever you need...). I used to blame Windows for this before the local Windows admin demonstrated that no local Windows machine had this problem. :)

Sorry, a bunch of irritation just leaked out, there.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @05:26PM (#650030)
Unfortunately, PF is even worse.

After typing an IP address, the dialog disappears (it appears that the mounting of a share has terminated abruptly), and 2 minutes later (also literally) when the SMB server has been loaded, a new dialog is presented with the list of shares :-(

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by randallsquared on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @03:28PM (#649757)
I shall; thanks.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by jsz0 on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @05:19PM (#650018)
It's funny you say that because anytime I use Windows or Linux I am wishing for a Zoom button. It's quite rare for me to ever need any window to completely fill my screen. As someone else did mention the biggest issue with OSX's Zoom button is consistency but fundamentally I think it's a far better way to deal with window management. The best solution might be for Apple to simply offer it as an easily accessible configuration option in System Preferences. There's really no wrong or right way -- it's just what you're used to and how willing you are to change habits.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by zach on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:14AM (#649210)
Are the first two items things you miss from Windows? They were for me, but I wouldn't want them added to 10.6...
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by cake on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:41AM (#649256)
The cut-and-paste thing is really a basic feature for me and I think it was working in Mac Os 8+, we already have a copy-and-paste. I can't understand why they couldn't implement the cut-and-paste.

I don't understand how you can't miss it, unless you "mv" everything.

The maximize thing is not entirely Windows, I remember seeing it on some Linux distros. I hate to see the clutter behind my windows, especially if I have a browser open on some webpage with a blinking ad.

I find it much harder to focus on the app on which I'm supposed to work if I have other stuff behind.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by DLWormwood on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:57PM (#649392)
This is partly historical. When MultiFinder was introduced to System 6, the Mac's primary difference from the PCs of the era was an emphasis on mouse manipulation, instead of keyboard manipuation (via DOS's command line, mostly). It was expected for end users to use drag-and-drop to move information between applications, instead of using the clipboard. (Something that Apple themselves didn't fully come through with regarding APIs until System 7.)

Since drag-and-drop requires visible targets to work, and users were expected to have to see data from two or more apps at the same time, it was considered "rude" to take up the entire screen. (Even apps that tried to do so were constrained by the OS to provide a 4-pixel gutter around the edges of the screen so the user could always option-click the Finder to the foreground.)

The notion that you only do work in just one app was considered "missing the point" for multitasking, which is part of the reason the original "Switcher" metaphor for multitasking in the classic Mac OS was abandoned.

http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Switcher.txt

Upshot: Apple's UI designers seem to regret adapting the newspaper publisher's concept of the clipboard, and have been trying to invent workarounds ever since, probably because it's a form of "hidden state." (See iPhone 1.x and 2.x for a more recent example.) The only time in recent memory Apple acknowledged the validity of a clipboard model was when they tried to adapt it to a "publish and subscribe" dynamic system in System 7, only to give up when implementation and UI complexities with the concept rendered that unpopular.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by larrykubin on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @11:56AM (#649280)
I feel the same way about maximize. If you complain about it, someone who defends every Apple decision will say "why would you want to do that? It doesn't make sense."

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=600389

Anyway, I downloaded something called Right Zoom that changes the behavior of the zoom button (which I find practically useless).

http://www.blazingtools.com/downloads.html

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by nixme on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:48PM (#649370)
If you'd rather not use a proprietary program from a company that makes keyloggers, check out WrongZoom (downloadable link in the readme): http://github.com/spicyj/wrongzoom/tree/master
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by DLWormwood on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:49PM (#649373)
I don't defend every Apple decision... but this is more a case of history with Apple creating a windowing paradigm before Microsoft did...

http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8pejm/i_love_my_mac_a...

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ZeroGravitas on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:07PM (#649299)
You can drag'n'drop the file too.

And for blinking ads in the background try either Option-Command-H (Hide everything else) or Spaces.

Yes I know that's not the answer you want, but just in case it helps you or anyone else.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by mcella on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:44PM (#649354)
For some apps (ff for instance) holding cmd while clicking (+) maximizes like in windows.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @04:07PM (#649859)
There were the first 2 things for me as well. While it's true that no maximized windows is just a design paradigm to improve multi-tasking, it's inconsistent (Mail maximizes all the way. So does iPhoto).

As for cut and paste... that's essential.

But the VERY worst thing is the lack of folder merging. Copy and paste a folder to a directory with a folder of the same name, and the contents of the destination will be REPLACED not merged with the source.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by dchest on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @05:48PM (#650061)
How would you implement merging? (I'm not trolling, I'm asking for a solution).
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @06:26PM (#650124)
The same way Windows does.

/folder1/file1.jpg

/me/folder1/file2.jpg

moving me/folder1 to /folder1 should result in

/folder1/file1.jpg

/folder1/file2.jpg

But on OS X, it only results in

/folder1/file2.jpg

Replace conflicting files, but not the folders themselves.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by dchest on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @06:37PM (#650138)
Now, you have version 1.0 of Cool.app, and version 2.0 Cool.app. 2.0 removes some files from the distribution, and adds some new. Cool.app is a bundle, i.e. folder that looks like file in Finder. Obviously, you want to replace the application completely instead of merging.

What would you do?

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @06:43PM (#650147)
Packages are treated as individual files everywhere in the Finder UI, this wouldn't be an exception.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by dchest on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @04:24AM (#650731)
Right. But now we have another problem. Our Cool.app stores user documents in packages. We have "Work.cool", which is treated like a package in Finder. Now we send this document to a person who doesn't have Cool.app installed. Then we send him another version of this document. How would merge/replace work for him? Since he doesn't have Cool.app, ".cool" folders are not registered as packages, they look like folders to him.

I see one solution to this problem: let user decide what to do. Apple could add "Merge" button (or maybe a better title meaning "Replace files inside the destination folder with files in source folder") in addition to "Replace" in "what do you want to do" dialog. (Note that you can't simply name this thing replacing as in Windows, because it's really merging). This would also require some kind of comparison dialog to ask users what files to overwrite.

I think Apple just went with a simplest solution here instead of introducing the whole new concept of merging and new UI to users to potentially create a confusion ("hm... what should I do - what's Merge and what's Replace?"). I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but I personally never miss Windows-like merging mistakenly called replace.

The better thing to fix (unrelated to merging), I think is to put the replaced folder to trash instead of overwriting it, to allow users to undo their action (see http://daringfireball.net/2003/03/i_love_it_because_its_tras...). However, this creates a confusion again ("what's this thing doing in my trash, I didn't delete it")... UI is hard.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @04:36AM (#650739)
@dchest:

Technically, these files belong in the user-specific ~/ directory and not the package itself, according to the ADC specifications, if I'm not mistaken.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by dchest on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @06:23AM (#650785)
By removing some files from distribution I mean, for example, getting rid of some resources, like nibs or images, etc.
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by ComputerGuru on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @12:42PM (#651292)
I guess the simplest solution would be to use metadata to identify a package as being a package and not a folder? That way it wouldn't matter what software was installed, etc?
Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by jasongullickson on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:23PM (#649324)
I have to say I've used osx for years and I've never noticed the first two (and I use Windows every weekday as well).

The third one sounds like it sucks though.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by GHFigs on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @12:31PM (#649332)
The first two work as intended. They may not fit your preference, but to "fix" them you would have to convince the authors that they are broken.

The third is not a software problem.

Re:Complete List of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Enhancements by jsonscripter on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @10:56AM (#649182)
That's actually eye-opening! I had no idea OS X lacked such basic features (and had such a "pop" bug).