7. Fix Spotlight. I have no idea what happened on my machine, by my Spotlight menu item does not work at all. This needs to be addressed, and fixed such that it just can't forget what it needs to do.
That isn't really exactly what interface consistency is about.
Interface consistency is an absolutely vital component of a complex operating system (IMHO). It is so that a user only needs to understand a few basic things, and they will then be able to very quickly use any application in the OS.
e.g. The left mouse button should always perform the same sort of actions, no matter which application you are in. Ditto right mouse button and scroll wheel.
There should be a set of "interface widgets", such as buttons, scroll bars, toolbars, sliders etc., which always look the same and always behave the same.
Certain key-combinations should always do the same thing, no matter which application you are using: e.g. command-S = save, command-shift-s = save as, command-c = copy, command-v = paste etc.
With a consistent user interface, the user doesn't have that much to remember. Once they have learnt and understand the actions, UI widgets and keyboard shortcuts, they can transfer that knowledge to whichever app they are using. If they want to perform a certain action, they know the kind of UI widget they should be looking for, or what they should do with the mouse, or which keyboard combination they should use etc.
There is also an element of cleaning up the visual side of things so that things look slightly less cluttered. There is still plenty of room for making apps look different from one another whilst adhering to a certain theme.
There are a few places where OS X is not consistent, it would be nice if these were all fixed to add that finishing touch of "spit and polish".
I'm with you 100% on the keyboard/keystroke layout schemes being consistent across all applications. Adobe breaks this off the bat with Hide/Show.
NeXT made sure the UI key-mappings were consistent and helped by making it unnecessary to write one piece of code to map your needs for the basics.
I can understand a non-linear editing system needing a custom keyboard/keystroke series of editing commands.
What would be nice is to dwrite a choice of shortcut key layouts that would better suit one user/developer over another.
The Font Panel should have the same key combination in all applications. Same with all inspectors, etc. Custom inspectors can have their own, so on and so forth.
1) For opengl to divert all of its resources to games (currently when games are played opengl keeps some of its resources for the OS, apparently).
2) FTP that works
3) Fixed wireless networking. If I go out of range then I have to reset the router itself as my Powerbook refuses to pick up its signal again, even with a reboot - this is SO annoying I cannot emphasize it enough.
4) A faster finder, I know I've only got a lowly 1.33Ghz Powerbook, but a beachball shouldn't appear for nearly every opening application. Switching between apps is fast and fluid, but multiple tasks for the finder grind my computer to a halt.
I 'd say he means it's to fiddely, too many panels and buttons, could be confusing to a Joe soap. He's probably comparing it other seamless apple apps like iPhoto, etc. If he is then I would agree that iCal needs a complete overhaul
I would like to see more support for xgrid computing in Leopard.
Now with the addition of multiple cpu's on a single motherboard and some power pc hardware laying around, I think it would be really really sweet to be able to network these computers together in a seamless apple way and be able to use them harnessed together to perform processor intensive tasks.
It's not uncommon for my PowerBook to turn practically molten when Safari starts using 40-60% of my CPU. Right now it's fluctuating around 50-70% with 4 windows containing 20 tabs. Although a single window open to a Myspace page typically puts it around the same numbers.
Comments
Originally posted by Mike Eggleston
7. Fix Spotlight. I have no idea what happened on my machine, by my Spotlight menu item does not work at all. This needs to be addressed, and fixed such that it just can't forget what it needs to do.
Have you tried re-indexing your hard drive.
Go to System Prefs.
Click Spotlight
Click Privacy
Hit +
choose your hard drive or user
close prefs
open spotlight prefs again
click privacy
click your hard drive icon or home folder icon
click -
Close prefs
You should have then re-indexed your drive.
hope this helps
Originally posted by TednDi
Have you tried re-indexing your hard drive.
Go to System Prefs.
Click Spotlight
Click Privacy
Hit +
choose your hard drive or user
close prefs
open spotlight prefs again
click privacy
click your hard drive icon or home folder icon
click -
Close prefs
You should have then re-indexed your drive.
hope this helps
I took your advice, and tried that. However, to no avail. I am now trying a Disk Utility Repair Permissions, but I don't think that is going to help.
One thing that I did notice though, it that I am apparently missing the com.apple.Spotlight.plist file in my Library. I wonder if that is the problem?
Originally posted by Mr. H
That isn't really exactly what interface consistency is about.
Interface consistency is an absolutely vital component of a complex operating system (IMHO). It is so that a user only needs to understand a few basic things, and they will then be able to very quickly use any application in the OS.
e.g. The left mouse button should always perform the same sort of actions, no matter which application you are in. Ditto right mouse button and scroll wheel.
There should be a set of "interface widgets", such as buttons, scroll bars, toolbars, sliders etc., which always look the same and always behave the same.
Certain key-combinations should always do the same thing, no matter which application you are using: e.g. command-S = save, command-shift-s = save as, command-c = copy, command-v = paste etc.
With a consistent user interface, the user doesn't have that much to remember. Once they have learnt and understand the actions, UI widgets and keyboard shortcuts, they can transfer that knowledge to whichever app they are using. If they want to perform a certain action, they know the kind of UI widget they should be looking for, or what they should do with the mouse, or which keyboard combination they should use etc.
There is also an element of cleaning up the visual side of things so that things look slightly less cluttered. There is still plenty of room for making apps look different from one another whilst adhering to a certain theme.
There are a few places where OS X is not consistent, it would be nice if these were all fixed to add that finishing touch of "spit and polish".
I'm with you 100% on the keyboard/keystroke layout schemes being consistent across all applications. Adobe breaks this off the bat with Hide/Show.
NeXT made sure the UI key-mappings were consistent and helped by making it unnecessary to write one piece of code to map your needs for the basics.
I can understand a non-linear editing system needing a custom keyboard/keystroke series of editing commands.
What would be nice is to dwrite a choice of shortcut key layouts that would better suit one user/developer over another.
The Font Panel should have the same key combination in all applications. Same with all inspectors, etc. Custom inspectors can have their own, so on and so forth.
2) FTP that works
3) Fixed wireless networking. If I go out of range then I have to reset the router itself as my Powerbook refuses to pick up its signal again, even with a reboot - this is SO annoying I cannot emphasize it enough.
4) A faster finder, I know I've only got a lowly 1.33Ghz Powerbook, but a beachball shouldn't appear for nearly every opening application. Switching between apps is fast and fluid, but multiple tasks for the finder grind my computer to a halt.
Originally posted by BWhaler
1. A real calendar program
whats wrong with iCal?
I use it for my schedule and it works good enough that i dont see much wrong with it.
Now with the addition of multiple cpu's on a single motherboard and some power pc hardware laying around, I think it would be really really sweet to be able to network these computers together in a seamless apple way and be able to use them harnessed together to perform processor intensive tasks.
(I can't wait to get an Intel based mac so I can run the intel version of Openstep on it.)
- Mark
It's not uncommon for my PowerBook to turn practically molten when Safari starts using 40-60% of my CPU. Right now it's fluctuating around 50-70% with 4 windows containing 20 tabs. Although a single window open to a Myspace page typically puts it around the same numbers.
I don't want anything under my dock, ever. Not even a little bit.
I want the dock on the left side of the screen and I want nothing to come within at least 5 pixels of it.
My dock is never even half-full, but I don't care. I'll take the wasted screen space just to take away the eyeball rape that is crap under my dock.
At least make it an option. It should only overlap EVER if I have magnification on.