looks fine to me. but i suspect it might have to do with the very long separator line that was in my original message. I fixed that. But since it was copied as a quote within Kickaha's response, the problem might still be there. Hopefully not though..
<strong>looks fine to me. but i suspect it might have to do with the very long separator line that was in my original message. I fixed that. But since it was copied as a quote within Kickaha's response, the problem might still be there. Hopefully not though..</strong><hr></blockquote>
Just a quick point to add to a thoroughly engaging discussion.
Check the version of IE that you've used in your testing (with the iMac400). I found that 5.1 was a real laggy slowpoke for scrolling through nested bookmark lists for e.g. but that that was all fixed in 5.2 (which were presumably running on the Macs you tried in the AppleStore). It is a very dramatic improvement.
Scrolling through the folders out of the dock is still annoyingly laggy for me in 10.1.5 on a 550 mHz TiBook. I had exactly the same criticism of IE 5.1 but 5.2 has rendered that operation very acceptable now.
I figure that similar improvements have been made in Jaguar but haven't tested it myself.
[quote]mac os x is something completly new and wasn't designed to run on g3 imac.
it runs just because everybody bitched they wanted it to.<hr></blockquote>
It runs because if it didn't run on G3 systems then they would lose a huge portion of their user base. How many iMacs had they sold by its third birthday in August 2001? Millions and Millions. Not to mention iBooks and B&W G3s. It would have been very very stupid for Apple to make OS X not run on G3s.
Hey mycatsnameis! yes, when you plug in a two button mouse the right click becomes control-click, without installing any drivers. Once you install the drivers you can customise this as well. For example, my Logitech mouse has two buttons and a scroll, as well as a thumb button. The thumb button was not enabled until logitech released the drivers, but left and right click, as well as scroll worked right out of the box.
<strong>- iBook@600Mhz fared worst: I couldn't see any benefit from QE. CPU consumption was very high (70%+), and top showed that the Window Manager was taking up a lot of CPU (30-40%). This makes sense since this computer had an ATI 128 with only 8MB of texture memory.</strong><hr></blockquote>
This makes sense; the minimum requirement for QE is an AGP-based Radeon or GF2 with 16MB of VRAM. That ATI 128 wasn't using QE at all, simply software Quartz (which is still very impressive!)
<strong>Nevyn: Any chance of a link on the MacTech article? (Or at least a publication reference? ) Sounds interesting.</strong><hr></blockquote>
No.
MacTech Magazine, August 2002, v18, #8, p8 "Writing Contextual Menu Plugins for OS X, part 1" by Brent Simmons. It should also be on their web site somewhere, but the article archive is ancient.
He writes a menu for "...any program that allows object selection" that adds an option to copy the path of the object to the clipboard. I've been looking for something like this.
I can think of 1E8 things I want added now-like (file format conversion, line-endings, 'make alias on desktop' being a few), so now that I've dug up the reference, it'll only cost you 47 of them.
MacTech Magazine, August 2002, v18, #8, p8 "Writing Contextual Menu Plugins for OS X, part 1" by Brent Simmons. It should also be on their web site somewhere, but the article archive is ancient.
He writes a menu for "...any program that allows object selection" that adds an option to copy the path of the object to the clipboard. I've been looking for something like this.
I can think of 1E8 things I want added now-like (file format conversion, line-endings, 'make alias on desktop' being a few), so now that I've dug up the reference, it'll only cost you 47 of them.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Sweet, thanks for the link... but, er... how are you supposed to get these to interact with the Finder? Does the Finder *support* plugins like these, or is this an example of "how to add plugin contextual menus to *your* app", as it appears to be on a casual inspection of the code?
Sweet, thanks for the link... but, er... how are you supposed to get these to interact with the Finder? Does the Finder *support* plugins like these, or is this an example of "how to add plugin contextual menus to *your* app", as it appears to be on a casual inspection of the code?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I have no idea.
Here's a quote from the article:
"After getting the COM parts out of the way, this article will show how to add a Copy Path menu command to the Finder's contextual menu. This command will copy the path of of a selected file or folder onto the clipboard...."
Where that sounds like he's editing the Finder via some sort of built-in ability of the Finder's. But, then, there's this quote:
"That way, if someone writes a Finder replacement that supports system contextual menus, this plugin will work there too."
He's just dropping the compiled widget into: "~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/", creating it if necessary.
Wow ...I read a half dozen Mac forums as I'm also a Windows user that wants to "switch back" to Mac. This was a great thread and very useful. When I see this type of thread started on many forums it immediately turns into moronic nonsense from bashers. Thanks for taking the time to post your mini-review and thanks to all the Mac users who responded with truly helpful information. Very cool.
Glad to see other people find value in this thread. I for one am enjoying it very much.
Some updates:
[quote]- navigation through text with the cursor is very slow, relative to Windows, be it per character, word, or even line. This seems to be a tradition on the Mac, as I distinctly remember this phenomenon on Mac OS Classic as well: maybe it's a "feature"? It seems even slower on OS X. I personally find it very annoying.
- this is also the case for editing: keeping the same key pressed translates into the screen very slowly. Likewise for keeping the "delete" key pressed. Text definitely seems like a sore spot for OS X, as far as performance (and that only) is concerned.<hr></blockquote>
Forget I ever complained about this: I just followed people's advice of increasing the key repeat rate.. oh my! what a difference: like day and night! thanks all To think that I have suffered patiently for years when I was a Mac user while this was there all along, I feel a little
To answer somebody's question about my version of IE: I am indeed already using IE 5.2.
I am still planning on trying Chimera at some later point..
Here are a few more observations about OS X, from an even more blatantly Windows-centric point of view :
- a "minimize all" button like the one on the Windows task bar. Great to set a clean slate when things get too busy, and also if you need quick access to the desktop.
- I wish all the wonderful apps in the Utilities folder were more exposed and somehow better integrated into the system (maybe through the Apple menu?). Things like: process viewer, cpu monitor, terminal etc. I'd like something along the lines of the cpu monitoring tab of the task manager of Win2k. I have that open all the times as it lets me keep an eye on the health of my machine (both memory usage and CPU usage)
- window borders! the tiny little resize widget at the bottom right of each window is way too hard to target especially when you keep bumping into the dock instead.
questions
-------------
- how do I kill a process which is not responding?
[quote]how do I kill a process which is not responding?<hr></blockquote>
Press command-option-escape. This will bring up a force quit dialog box. Select the application you want to quit, and click the button. If Finder is not responding, you can select Finder and click the button, which is labeled "relaunch" instead of "quit." You can even relaunch Finder while you're playing music or downloading something, and your computer won't skip a beat!
a "minimize all" button like the one on the Windows task bar. Great to set a clean slate when things get too busy, and also if you need quick access to the desktop.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Here's a nifty little trick I picked up from these boards: Open Finder. Grab your Desktop folder and drop it in the Dock. Blammo: Instant, one-click access to your desktop.
Shift-Command-H will trigger the Hide Others command, which will hide everything but the frontmost app. That's not quite minimize all, but if you click on your Desktop folder in the Dock and then press Shift-Command-H, you've just hidden everything except Finder.
[quote]<strong>- I wish all the wonderful apps in the Utilities folder were more exposed and somehow better integrated into the system (maybe through the Apple menu?).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Drop your Utilities folder into the Dock. All your Utilities are now available from the pop-up menu.
[quote]<strong>- window borders! the tiny little resize widget at the bottom right of each window is way too hard to target especially when you keep bumping into the dock instead.</strong><hr></blockquote>
This does take some getting used to, and the general lack of Dock-savviness among applications does compound it.
Another cool OSX shortcut that i wasn't aware of until recently is holding down the Option key while clicking the minimize, maximize or close widgets. This will affect all windows of the application.
Comments
It's funny... I want the scroll speed jacked way up, but I keep the key repeat about 3/4 to fastest. I guess my brain is faster than my reaction time.
Glad we could help 'splain some things.
Nevyn: Any chance of a link on the MacTech article? (Or at least a publication reference?
<strong>looks fine to me. but i suspect it might have to do with the very long separator line that was in my original message. I fixed that. But since it was copied as a quote within Kickaha's response, the problem might still be there. Hopefully not though..</strong><hr></blockquote>
It isn't now.
<strong>Now, that last part is just silly. Let's take a look down memory lane, mm-kay?</strong><hr></blockquote>
plus:
mac os x is something completly new and wasn't designed to run on g3 imac.
it runs just because everybody bitched they wanted it to.
win2k is the same win we all know and love with a couple of features and a new ui.
apple had a good reason to cut loose of "the old stuff" (hard- and software) : because we are heading for the future.
imho mac os x is the only os that is made for the future. the rest out there is putting makeup on an old lady.
[ 08-19-2002: Message edited by: peve ]</p>
Check the version of IE that you've used in your testing (with the iMac400). I found that 5.1 was a real laggy slowpoke for scrolling through nested bookmark lists for e.g. but that that was all fixed in 5.2 (which were presumably running on the Macs you tried in the AppleStore). It is a very dramatic improvement.
Scrolling through the folders out of the dock is still annoyingly laggy for me in 10.1.5 on a 550 mHz TiBook. I had exactly the same criticism of IE 5.1 but 5.2 has rendered that operation very acceptable now.
I figure that similar improvements have been made in Jaguar but haven't tested it myself.
catman
Hasn't there been an easy way (for sometime) to use a multibutton mouse in teh Mac OS and simply have the right button config'd to send a "cmd-click"?
I don't have a multi-button mouse but I was sure that that was a standard feature of many of the 3rd party Mac-oriented products out there.
right clicking brings up contextual menus automatically.
<strong>
It isn't now.
D'oh! Thanks.
And just to whet your appetite, the standard mouse drivers in MacOS X support *five* buttons/wheels/etc, IIRC. (Brad? You're the wiz here...
it runs just because everybody bitched they wanted it to.<hr></blockquote>
It runs because if it didn't run on G3 systems then they would lose a huge portion of their user base. How many iMacs had they sold by its third birthday in August 2001? Millions and Millions. Not to mention iBooks and B&W G3s. It would have been very very stupid for Apple to make OS X not run on G3s.
Hey mycatsnameis! yes, when you plug in a two button mouse the right click becomes control-click, without installing any drivers. Once you install the drivers you can customise this as well. For example, my Logitech mouse has two buttons and a scroll, as well as a thumb button. The thumb button was not enabled until logitech released the drivers, but left and right click, as well as scroll worked right out of the box.
--PB
<strong>- iBook@600Mhz fared worst: I couldn't see any benefit from QE. CPU consumption was very high (70%+), and top showed that the Window Manager was taking up a lot of CPU (30-40%). This makes sense since this computer had an ATI 128 with only 8MB of texture memory.</strong><hr></blockquote>
This makes sense; the minimum requirement for QE is an AGP-based Radeon or GF2 with 16MB of VRAM. That ATI 128 wasn't using QE at all, simply software Quartz (which is still very impressive!)
<strong>Nevyn: Any chance of a link on the MacTech article? (Or at least a publication reference?
No.
MacTech Magazine, August 2002, v18, #8, p8 "Writing Contextual Menu Plugins for OS X, part 1" by Brent Simmons. It should also be on their web site somewhere, but the article archive is ancient.
He writes a menu for "...any program that allows object selection" that adds an option to copy the path of the object to the clipboard. I've been looking for something like this.
I can think of 1E8 things I want added now-like (file format conversion, line-endings, 'make alias on desktop' being a few), so now that I've dug up the reference, it'll only cost you 47 of them.
<strong>
No.
MacTech Magazine, August 2002, v18, #8, p8 "Writing Contextual Menu Plugins for OS X, part 1" by Brent Simmons. It should also be on their web site somewhere, but the article archive is ancient.
He writes a menu for "...any program that allows object selection" that adds an option to copy the path of the object to the clipboard. I've been looking for something like this.
I can think of 1E8 things I want added now-like (file format conversion, line-endings, 'make alias on desktop' being a few), so now that I've dug up the reference, it'll only cost you 47 of them.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Sweet, thanks for the link... but, er... how are you supposed to get these to interact with the Finder? Does the Finder *support* plugins like these, or is this an example of "how to add plugin contextual menus to *your* app", as it appears to be on a casual inspection of the code?
<strong>
Sweet, thanks for the link... but, er... how are you supposed to get these to interact with the Finder? Does the Finder *support* plugins like these, or is this an example of "how to add plugin contextual menus to *your* app", as it appears to be on a casual inspection of the code?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I have no idea.
Here's a quote from the article:
"After getting the COM parts out of the way, this article will show how to add a Copy Path menu command to the Finder's contextual menu. This command will copy the path of of a selected file or folder onto the clipboard...."
Where that sounds like he's editing the Finder via some sort of built-in ability of the Finder's. But, then, there's this quote:
"That way, if someone writes a Finder replacement that supports system contextual menus, this plugin will work there too."
He's just dropping the compiled widget into: "~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/", creating it if necessary.
He's just dropping the compiled widget into: "~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/", creating it if necessary.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Ah, got it. It's using the type registration system instead of app-specific plugin systems.
Wow ...I read a half dozen Mac forums as I'm also a Windows user that wants to "switch back" to Mac. This was a great thread and very useful. When I see this type of thread started on many forums it immediately turns into moronic nonsense from bashers. Thanks for taking the time to post your mini-review and thanks to all the Mac users who responded with truly helpful information. Very cool.
-bullrat
Some updates:
[quote]- navigation through text with the cursor is very slow, relative to Windows, be it per character, word, or even line. This seems to be a tradition on the Mac, as I distinctly remember this phenomenon on Mac OS Classic as well: maybe it's a "feature"? It seems even slower on OS X. I personally find it very annoying.
- this is also the case for editing: keeping the same key pressed translates into the screen very slowly. Likewise for keeping the "delete" key pressed. Text definitely seems like a sore spot for OS X, as far as performance (and that only) is concerned.<hr></blockquote>
Forget I ever complained about this: I just followed people's advice of increasing the key repeat rate.. oh my! what a difference: like day and night! thanks all
To answer somebody's question about my version of IE: I am indeed already using IE 5.2.
I am still planning on trying Chimera at some later point..
Here are a few more observations about OS X, from an even more blatantly Windows-centric point of view
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 2
things I am missing from Windows
----------------------------------------------
- a "minimize all" button like the one on the Windows task bar. Great to set a clean slate when things get too busy, and also if you need quick access to the desktop.
- I wish all the wonderful apps in the Utilities folder were more exposed and somehow better integrated into the system (maybe through the Apple menu?). Things like: process viewer, cpu monitor, terminal etc. I'd like something along the lines of the cpu monitoring tab of the task manager of Win2k. I have that open all the times as it lets me keep an eye on the health of my machine (both memory usage and CPU usage)
- window borders! the tiny little resize widget at the bottom right of each window is way too hard to target especially when you keep bumping into the dock instead.
questions
-------------
- how do I kill a process which is not responding?
[ 08-19-2002: Message edited by: cygsid ]</p>
Press command-option-escape. This will bring up a force quit dialog box. Select the application you want to quit, and click the button. If Finder is not responding, you can select Finder and click the button, which is labeled "relaunch" instead of "quit." You can even relaunch Finder while you're playing music or downloading something, and your computer won't skip a beat!
<strong>things I am missing from Windows
---------
a "minimize all" button like the one on the Windows task bar. Great to set a clean slate when things get too busy, and also if you need quick access to the desktop.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Here's a nifty little trick I picked up from these boards: Open Finder. Grab your Desktop folder and drop it in the Dock. Blammo: Instant, one-click access to your desktop.
Shift-Command-H will trigger the Hide Others command, which will hide everything but the frontmost app. That's not quite minimize all, but if you click on your Desktop folder in the Dock and then press Shift-Command-H, you've just hidden everything except Finder.
[quote]<strong>- I wish all the wonderful apps in the Utilities folder were more exposed and somehow better integrated into the system (maybe through the Apple menu?).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Drop your Utilities folder into the Dock. All your Utilities are now available from the pop-up menu.
[quote]<strong>- window borders! the tiny little resize widget at the bottom right of each window is way too hard to target especially when you keep bumping into the dock instead.</strong><hr></blockquote>
This does take some getting used to, and the general lack of Dock-savviness among applications does compound it.
[ 08-19-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
very good thread btw