Road to Mac OS X Leopard: Finder 10.5

[AppleInsider]

The Finder in Mac OS X has long been reviled as the most glaring problem in the system, earning it the "Fix the F-ing Finder" meme. Apple has significantly updated the Finder for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, introducing some things old, some things new, some things borrowed, and, well, the icon is still blue. Here's a look at what's new.

The Finder's Origins

The Finder is as old as the Macintosh. In the earliest versions of the Mac's System Software, the Finder was a simple file utility that ran as the default application when the system started. It allowed users to organize and rename their documents, and delete them by dragging icons to the trash.

In order to deliver the original Mac at a much lower price point than the Lisa, its more expensive older sister, Apple reduced the amount of memory it used, forcing the Mac to drop the Lisa's multitasking support. Because the Mac System Software could only run one application at a time, the Finder would shutdown whenever another application was launched, and then restart when that application was quit.



In order to allow multiple apps to run together and quickly move between them, Apple's Andy Hertzfeld released Switcher, which loaded multiple apps into memory and allowed the user to select a desired app with a key press. As applications switched, the new active application would slide in horizontally.

In the late 80s, Finder 6.0 was delivered with MultiFinder, which shipped with Mac System 5 and System 6. After activating MultiFinder, the system could perform the task of Switcher onscreen, allowing users to have multiple applications running together on top of the Finder desktop, and operate between them seamlessly.

System 7 built this function in as the default option, and continued to add services that built upon the idea of having multiple windows active at once, including drag and drop support between applications. By the late 90s, Apple renamed the latest version of System 7 to Mac OS 7.6, and then released successive versions under the names Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9. Despite adding new features and optimizations, the Finder didn't change dramatically from its late 80s design, although a variety of shareware apps were tacked on the side.



The Mac OS X Finder

The release of Mac OS X carried over the idea of the Finder, but was built upon a completely different foundation. Rather than being a application that shared the screen and the processor with other running apps in cooperation, the new Finder was a fully preemptively multitasked application running on top of a Unix foundation.

That meant that a rogue application could be force quit without taking down the entire system, and that the Finder itself could be killed and restarted without disrupting or destabilizing the operating environment. Earlier Mac OS versions could attempt to kill a frozen application, but it would frequently lock up the system entirely. Windows 95/98/Me promised to deliver preemptive multitasking, but the instability of the underlying system similarly meant that a crashing application would frequently take down the entire Windows session with an "illegal operation" error.

For Mac OS X, Apple worked to both maintain portions of the Finder legacy and to rethink its interface features as part of the new Aqua user interface. Rather that being a single, monolithic application that handled everything, the new Mac OS X desktop came to include a series of applications that worked together to create the Finder and desktop experience.
The new Finder handled the desktop and Finder windows.The new Dock acted as a program launcher and a holding tray for files and open windows.The Menu Bar and its Menu Extra icons on the right were managed by the SystemUIServer application.Various other faceless system applications associated with the Finder are handled by other helper apps.
The Finder look from 10.0 to 10.2 (below left) reflected the translucent plastics of the iMac and incorporated a Toolbar shelf and column view borrowed from NeXTSTEP (below right).



Fixing the Finder

Compared to the classic Mac OS Finder, the new Mac OS X Finder felt slow and even clumsy, and lacked some of the features of Mac OS 9. Because Apple had rewritten the Finder using Carbon in order to prove to third party developers that Mac OS X could run their existing classic applications with minimal work, many assumed that simply rewriting the Finder using the Cocoa frameworks would solve all of its problems.

Others complained that the new Finder broke convention with the old single view, spatial paradigm of the classic Mac Finder. They found it simply too confusing because it would allow users to open multiple windows of the same folder using different view settings (icon and column view, for example).

In addition to complaints about performance and preferences, the Mac OS X Finder simply failed to demonstrate new innovation in line with other developments Apple had introduced. This was particularly evident as iTunes, Safari, and other Apple apps progressed rapidly, leaving the Panther/Tiger Finder looking oddly out of place. It really hadn't changed much in terms of features over earlier versions.

John Siracusa of Ars Technica, John Gruber of Daring Fireball, and Daniel Eran Dilger of Roughly Drafted have each offered ideas on fixing the Finder over the last half decade: About the Finder...; That Finder Thing; and How to Fix the Finder: Faster, Prettier, Smarter.

The Leopard Finder

Last year, Apple unveiled the new design for the Finder in Leopard. Some of the features associated or deeply integrated with the Finder really belong to other applications or services, including the Dock, Spotlight, Spaces, Time Machine, and Quick Look. Some of these features will be considered in a separate article.



The new Finder 10.5 drops the brushed metal look introduced in 2003's Panther 10.3 (above), and instead adopts the new unified aluminum appearance common to all apps running in Leopard. It borrows obvious elements from iTunes, including its sidebar. The Library, Shared, and Playlists of iTunes become the Finders' Devices, Shared, Places, and Search folders (below).



Devices lists internal and locally connected drives, optical and other removable disks, and the local .Mac iDisk mirror, if configured.

Shared lists a Bonjour browsing of file servers on the local network, along with the Back to My Mac feature and other connected servers. Back to My Mac is a new feature that allows you to register your home system with .Mac, and seamlessly access file shares, printers, and other shared items remotely over the Internet. Connect from anywhere, and all your shared resources at home are available from the Finder's sidebar.

The Bonjour browsing makes it much easier for non-technical users to share files. Taking the place of the old Chooser or browsing the Connect to Server or the even more odd Network source in the existing Finder, the new list of Shared items works identically to how iTunes or iPhoto browse the local network to find possible shares and then present them for attachment.

Clicking on a shared system presents the shares that system is serving, allows you to log in, and then mounts the server as a drive. Mounted shares sport an eject button, allowing you to unmount any file shares directly from the sidebar.



Places lists whatever folders the user desires to put there; by default it lists the user's home directory folders, just as the previous Finder did. It uses the same "drag out to poof" Dock-like method for removing items; new items can be added by dragging in a folder between existing items. Dragging items to the folders will copy items into the folder.

Search For folders make queries available in Finder windows just like iTunes' Smart Playlists. By default, there are three searches the bring up files created or modified Today, Yesterday, or Last Week. Three more examples provide a starting point and indicate how to set up smart searches: All Movies, All Images, All Documents. The New Smart Folder command from the Edit menu is used to create a new folder, which can then be dragged into the Finder sidebar.



On page 2: Leopard Toolbar: Cover Flow and Quick Look; Finder Spotlight Search; and The More Things Change...

Leopard Toolbar: Cover Flow and Quick Look

In addition to the existing forward and back buttons of the existing Finder, and its Icon, List, and Column views, the new Finder offers a Cover Flow view. It's not always the most useful view, but is handy in some circumstances. It's more useful than one might imagine because Leopard now generates dynamic icon previews for files (below), similar to Windows Vista. Previously, generating a preview required a helper application, and was not dynamic. In Leopard, the icon displayed shows a live preview of the actual contents of the file.



If you're looking through a directory of images, Cover Flow makes a lot of sense. However, it's also useful for scanning through a huge pile of HTML files with unintelligible names; Cover Flow very rapidly renders each page so you can visually peruse the directory contents looking for the page you need. It doesn't just show tiny album art versions either; enlarge the Finder window, and it will display live previews of documents at about 75% of actual size. The glossy black background and reflection on the polished virtual floor adds a nice touch, too.



To view more of the document, or multiple pages of a document, mouse over and select pages. Movies will play directly from the Cover Flow view. Hit the spacebar and the new Quick Look pops up a window containing a full sized, read-only view of the document, instantly.

Quick Look weaves throughout Leopard, not just within the Finder. Additionally, any third party developer can build Quick Look plugins for the custom file types they create, allowing users to preview specialized files beyond the basic filetypes Apple supports natively.

A Quick Look button (the unblinking eye, below) can also be added to the Finder window using Customize Toolbar. An Info button that pops up the classic Get Info panel is also an option, along with a Path button, which drops down a listing of the file's enclosing folders. This path drop down has long been a hidden feature revealed by Apple-clicking on the document's proxy icon in middle of the window bar. The Finder Toolbar also functions as a shelf, allowing files, folders, and applications to be dragged into the Toolbar as they can be in existing versions of the Finder.



Finder Spotlight Search

Currently in Tiger, entering a Spotlight query into the menu bar and then selecting "Show All" opens up a special Spotlight search window. In Leopard, this search is opened in a standard Finder window, which makes a lot more sense. Entering a search query into the search bar of a Finder window is now consistent with using the menu bar Spotlight.

In both cases, you now get search results in a Finder window, which can be isolated to a specific folder, disk, or to a server. A simple search menu bar button lets you select between searching against file contents or file names. Additional search criteria can be added, and a query can be saved. Be default, saved searches are added to the Finder sidebar, and also to the users' ~/Library/Saved Searches folder.

Spotlight searches from menu bar can also now accommodate more complex searches. On its Leopard page, Apple notes, "From the Finder or the menu bar, Spotlight in Leopard lets you search for more specific sets of things. Use Boolean logic to narrow search results by entering “AND,” “OR,” or “NOT” into a search request. You can also search for exact phrases (using quotation marks), dates, ranges (using greater than [>] and less than [

[richardb]

Does the new Finder still hang when a connected share goes away?

[Cubert]

Hey! I like the Finder icon! In my mind, it is as tightly bound to the concept of what a Mac is as the startup gong - which I also like!

[Haggar]

Folder icons in the Leopard Finder look like the flat System 7 folders. Was Apple trying to be retro?

[idoaudio]

I also happen to enjoy the old happy face finder icon. It reinforces the notion that OS X is a fun, user friendly experience. You can't get much more Mac than that.

[SpamSandwich]

There are lots of subtle, useful updates and new technologies. For example, it's now possible to set user permissions on files using Access Control List-style permissions. While ACLs were supported in Tiger, there was no way to set or change them in the Finder; it could only set Unix style permissions. ACLs allow arbitrary read and write rights to be granted to any user, not just the Unix style user/group/everyone permissions.

This sounds like exactly what I was griping about last week. Finally... but then again, I won't be upgrading for at least 4 to 6 months (so the big bugs can get squashed first).

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by Haggar

Folder icons in the Leopard Finder look like the flat System 7 folders. Was Apple trying to be retro?

They should have used Lisa as a model lol

[Ireland]

It is a nice upgrade.

[lgc90]

I'd just like to take the time to thank AppleInsider for this "Road to Mac OS X Leopard" series. When you posted the first one, I noticed the title and hoped that it would continue as a theme for an entire series. It's both extremely informative as well as an efficient means of staving off the eager anticipation.

[Hobbes]

Nice capsule history, but I'd like see a little more on how on actual changes in the Leopard Finder.

For example, there's a raft of little things - e.g. the return of adjustable grid spacing (finally) and cleaned-up and enhanced View Options (now with per-folder settings).

The question of how the Leopard Finder handles network disconnects is also ... of considerable interest.

[emig647]

You know, I think at this point (after them adding bread crumbs to the finder)... my biggest complaint is lack of tabs for the finder. It gets so old having 20 finder windows open and trying to figure out which is which using expose or whatever method.

Part of me is really disappointed in apple in not listening to users in adding tabs. They added tabs to the terminal so they obviously know they are needed in some places. Why not finder window?

The other part of me feels like Apple has a really good reason for not using tabs, but I sure can't think of it.

[imho]

I heard that you could drag item to the Finder Dock icon, it would then spring open a Finder window in your default location (with Sidebar intact) and you could then springload to your heart's content? Is this true?

[hypoluxa]

Originally Posted by idoaudio

I also happen to enjoy the old happy face finder icon. It reinforces the notion that OS X is a fun, user friendly experience. You can't get much more Mac than that.

I second that as well.

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by richardb

Does the new Finder still hang when a connected share goes away?

No..that was history from the 1st beta. No more temp lockouts when unmounting shares.

[Hobbes]

Originally Posted by imho

I heard that you could drag item to the Finder Dock icon, it would then spring open a Finder window in your default location (with Sidebar intact) and you could then springload to your heart's content? Is this true?

I hear it is! Sounds nifty.

[Leto]

Maybe I'm missing this feature in Tiger, but is there a way to see the full path in the Finder? If so, how? If not, this is something I'd really, really want in Leopard.

[suhail]

Originally Posted by lgc90

I'd just like to take the time to thank AppleInsider for this "Road to Mac OS X Leopard" series. When you posted the first one, I noticed the title and hoped that it would continue as a theme for an entire series. It's both extremely informative as well as an efficient means of staving off the eager anticipation.

I agree, thanx AI

[Hobbes]

Originally Posted by Leto

Maybe I'm missing this feature in Tiger, but is there a way to see the full path in the Finder? If so, how? If not, this is something I'd really, really want in Leopard.

In Tiger, the only way is to command-click the name/icon of a window's title bar, or via the Path button in the Finder toolbar.

In Leopard, same, but there'll also be a path bar that you can turn on that appears at the bottom of the window.

[suhail]

Originally Posted by Leto

Maybe I'm missing this feature in Tiger, but is there a way to see the full path in the Finder? If so, how? If not, this is something I'd really, really want in Leopard.

The other way is dragging any file/foler to the terminal window, it'll display its full path.

[yama]

I really don't like the way the Leopard Finder doesn't remember individual window view settings, unless you go through each window and set it to "Always open in icon/list/column view".

Changing between icon, list, column and cover flow now applies to *all* windows. The previous Finder would always remember view settings for each window by default. This further destroys the spatial interface model because there is no guarantee that the window contents are going to be the same the next time you open it.

It really should be a global setting like the iTunes "Remember view settings for each source", rather than a per-window choice. The way it is now, it forces you to configure every single folder if you want to have a consistent viewing experience. That's just crazy

[abrooks]

What happened to the bread crumbing?

[Neruda]

Originally Posted by Leto

Maybe I'm missing this feature in Tiger, but is there a way to see the full path in the Finder? If so, how? If not, this is something I'd really, really want in Leopard.

Another option (in addition to the ones already mentioned).

My number 1 feature request for Leopard is increased performance (and no more beach ball). I hope that all of this eye candy does not come with a performance hit. Any indications on how Leopard performs on PPC machines?

[solipsism]

Nice article.

I really love how networked machines automatically show up. If they are Windows based you can see what shares are available without having to go through several redundant steps. they are just there. And if it's a Mac the Scren Sharing button is readily available to you without the use of the expensive Remote Desktop software.

BTW, I do a lot of traveling and you wouldn't believe the number of unsecured C: Drives I find while staying in hotel rooms. I have a folder setup with 50 identical text files that I dump on their Desltop. The text files walk the user through how to turn of sharing of their C: Drive I'm trying to be a good Samaritan here but I wonder how many people feel violated and if my act could be grounds for a legal matter. Luckily my Mac doesn't show up on Windows networking.

Originally Posted by richardb

Does the new Finder still hang when a connected share goes away?

As previously noted this no longer occurs. It apparently has to do with additional Unix strings or binding, but I'd love for someone to elaborate on it as this really has made Finder itself worth uprade from Tiger to Leopard if you have a networked environment.

[techno]

Does anybody know if there is a quick way to copy the path of file or folder to the clipboard? There are times I need to include the path of something in an email.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by abrooks

What happened to the bread crumbing?

What is that?

[artistry]

Originally Posted by Cubert

Hey! I like the Finder icon! In my mind, it is as tightly bound to the concept of what a Mac is as the startup gong - which I also like!

I like it too and funnily enough was in a talk today by a colleague who was on the team that designed it (along with the Cyberdog and Firewire logos! Ah, Cyberdog...)

I don't find it goofy at all, and think it offers a much more friendly brand than Windows.

I wish it would still come up when my Mac switches on.

[bdkennedy1]

I love the Finder icon. It's retro and reminds me how far along Mac OS has come and reminds me of the roots of the OS.

[bdkennedy1]

Originally Posted by Neruda

My number 1 feature request for Leopard is increased performance (and no more beach ball). I hope that all of this eye candy does not come with a performance hit. Any indications on how Leopard performs on PPC machines?

I have an Intel iMac and PowerMac G5 and when I tested a recent version of Leopard, it was noticeably faster. Apps opened much faster than Tiger and everything felt snappier.

It makes me wonder if Apple purposely throttles the speed of the OS so each successive version seems faster.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by techno

Does anybody know if there is a quick way to copy the path of file or folder to the clipboard? There are times I need to include the path of something in an email.

Not to the clipboard, but if you do a google search I think you will find applescripts for such actions.

Scratch that...
Download TextWrangler. It does an amazing job of indenting each sub-folder/file too. Gotta give BareBones props on this one.

Warning: Since OS X Applications are really just a special folder with a .app appended to them it will log all those sub-folders/files too.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by solipsism

What is that?

Bread crumbing means showing the entire path to the current location. Column View is bread crumbed by its nature, and the other views can see the bread crumbs in a popup. But traditional bread crumbs (as seen in some web sites) are often more like iTunes Music Store uses: a horizontal row that's always visible, yet nice and compact.

As seen in the screenshot above, I believe Leopard does add this option--placed at the bottom of the view.

[bdkennedy1]

Originally Posted by techno

Does anybody know if there is a quick way to copy the path of file or folder to the clipboard? There are times I need to include the path of something in an email.

I can only think of dragging and dropping the folder into a terminal window and then copying the path to the clipboard.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by nagromme

Bread crumbing means showing the entire path to the current location. Column View is bread crumbed by its nature, and the other views can see the bread crumbs in a popup. But traditional bread crumbs (as seen in some web sites) are often more like iTunes Music Store uses: a horizontal row that's always visible, yet nice and compact.

As seen in the screenshot above, I believe Leopard does add this option--placed at the bottom of the view.

Gotcha, thanks. You can also Command+Click the titel bar for the breadcrymb or use the Customized Toolbar option to add it.

I prefer it listed at the bottom. My only complaint is that mouseovers for long names aren't revealing the full name. I suspect this is a bug.

[emig647]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

No..that was history from the 1st beta. No more temp lockouts when unmounting shares.

mmmmm Sorry, that hasn't been fixed as of tiger.

I get locked out all the times... Say I'm connected to my other mac and i restart that computer to windows... the machine that is connected to it doesnt' know it disappeared. THen I try and open something in the open file window with whatever program... and bam... beachball / no response for minutes until it realizes the share is not there anymore.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by emig647

mmmmm Sorry, that hasn't been fixed as of tiger.

I get locked out all the times... Say I'm connected to my other mac and i restart that computer to windows... the machine that is connected to it doesnt' know it disappeared. THen I try and open something in the open file window with whatever program... and bam... beachball / no response for minutes until it realizes the share is not there anymore.

Umm, he meant first Beta of Leopard.

[emig647]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Umm, he meant first Beta of Leopard.

Ahhhh

[Chucker]

Originally Posted by techno

Does anybody know if there is a quick way to copy the path of file or folder to the clipboard? There are times I need to include the path of something in an email.

http://www.bergenstreetsoftware.com/news/?p=10

[serpicolugnut]

The latest builds of 10.5 have the freeze after a network share is disconnected bug fixed. Also, the bread crumbs are disable by default, but can be enabled by selecting "View > Show Path Bar".

Grid spacing is back, and it works well.

The visual refresh on the Finder is very nice.

I suspect the final remaining complains about the Finder will be the Finder window lozenge switch that flips between views. I don't have a problem with a switch that changes how you traverse folders. My only complaint is that it completely changes the look of the Windows. I'm sure they could have come up with some other visual queue that signified you were in Spatial view mode.

I suspect more people will turn their hatred back towards the dock in 10.5. The Finder has gotten about as good as Apple is going to make it. The dock, on the other hand, has many many problems.

Oh, and in the latest builds, Apple has adjusted the menu bar. It isn't nearly as transparent as it was in the WWDC build. It still changes the reflect a good amount of the underlying desktop picture's color, but it doesn't reveal any detail. This makes for a good compromise. With the included B&W photo desktops, the bar has a nice silvery/gray appareance, and is quite ledgible.

Leopard is going to rock.

[JohnnyKrz]

I hope this 'Back to My Mac' feature of .Mac will eventually be a complete 'place-shifting' system including iPhone (and, keep dreaming, Windows) support. Leave all your documents including iTunes audio and video on one computer and access it via the internet (although I guess EDGE might not cut it for the iPhone) with near zero configuration. Also, allow new documents and purchases to be automatically saved to the server Mac. This fits well with the Apple TV. Then if a third-party like Elgato filled in the gaps with DVR software that automatically put files into iTunes, we would finally be able to have a completely Mac place-shifting media center.

[frogbat]

Originally Posted by Chucker

http://www.bergenstreetsoftware.com/news/?p=10

they seem to have probs on intel macs - i use the applescripts on the followin page

http://www.pure-mac.com/cmm.html#filepathtoclip



as regards to the finder - i'd like a fixed place to view file activity. The new mail appears to have this integrated in its sidebar. I'd like this to be the case in finder too - maybe in the menubar or dock rather than a finder window tho. The current file transfer windows always lose focus.

yay for better icon previews - the thumbnail view in xp had osX beat for a long time. oh and one hting that shows how apple thinks of the details - the video previews jump 5 seconds in so you are not left with the black screen which is normal for the 1st 2nd of video clips.

i'd now like more filtering options in list mode and a hybrid columns / list view. The navigation is handled via columns but the current column view would have all the filtering / sorting options of list view.

more power to the save / close dialogue or a simple "show in finder" option if not a full mini finder.

yay for the hanging when connected drives / machines are turned off fix but i think this is a major bug that should be sorted out in tiger with an update and not be a selling point for leopard.

[AlmostBoughtaLisa]

Originally Posted by Leto

Maybe I'm missing this feature in Tiger, but is there a way to see the full path in the Finder? If so, how? If not, this is something I'd really, really want in Leopard.

1. Right-click in the toolbar of any open Finder window and choose "Customize Toolbar..." from the pop-up menu that appears; or choose "Customize Toolbar..." from the "View" menu while a Finder window is selected.
2. From the palette that appears, drag the "Path" pop-up button into the toolbar above it, positioning and then dropping it wherever you want it. You may have to wait a couple of seconds for the toolbar to respond to your movements.
3. Click "Done" to close the palette.
4. To remove that pop-up button, or any other tool, from a Finder window toolbar, hold down the Command/Apple key, drag the item anywhere outside of the toolbar, and release it.
5. Click on the "Path" pop-up button in any Finder window to see an inverse hierarchical list of the file path to that folder.