A Better Finder?

Build6 writes "Ars Technica opens today with another one of their deeply-thought-out articles relating to MacOS X issues, pointing out another thing which the old MacOS had and the current one doesn't."

Comments

Re:OS X is in its infancy

[Seanasy]

OK, I admit I only skimmed the article. But, I've gone back and skimmed it again and now I think the author is an idiot.

Bookmarks - A simplified version of this feature already exists in the form for "Favorites", but it seems only natural to expand this feature to match the bookmarking facilities found in web browsers.

How is favorites different from bookmarks again?

Back/forward buttons with history - The OS X Finder already has back and forward buttons, but they lack history pop-up menus. And although the "Recent folders" menu item keeps track of a handful of past locations, it is very limited when compared with the robust history tracking found in most web browsers.

So he says the Finder needs' Back/forward buttons with history.' Then he goes on to say that is has them. His only complaint is that the history isn't long enough.

A stop button - In a browser environment, users should decide when to stop waiting for a slow network disk, or other long-running task. A folder can just be closed if the contents are taking a long time to load, but browser windows are "reusable" and should not be tied to the performance or accessibility of any single location.

This is just dumb and the web browser comparisons are going too far. How can he be criticizing the Finder for HCI problems then go on to complain that it's missing web browser features. He later claims he isn't trying to make it into a web browser yet he wants most web browser features. The confusion of the two in Winbdows and KDE is, in my opinion, one of the biggest usability disasters to hit desktops. 'Stop' does not make sense in the context of a file browser. Network drives shouldn't take a long time to browse but other ways must be found to keep the Finder from hanging.

An address bar with auto-completion - This is probably an "expert" feature, but why not add a proper address bar to the list of toolbar components? In addition to history-based auto-completion, it should also support shell-style tab-completion for file paths.

Command-Shift-G. Auto-completion and everything. Put it in the toolbar and you'll confuse the average user as well as make the Finder look more like a web browser. Leave it as it is and the 'experts' have it at their fingertips, average users don't have to even think about it.