Invisible window in 10.2.1 Finder?

kickahakickaha
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Bring up your Finder in 10.2.1, and open one window. Use Cmd-~ to switch between windows. You'd expect it to not do a darned thing, but on mine, the current window is deactivated, then reactivated, then back. It's like the Finder is swapping between the visible window and an invisible one.



Anyone else see this?



[ 09-22-2002: Message edited by: Kickaha ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    aussie johnaussie john Posts: 173member
    yes it does and the invisible window is the desktop.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Yep. Pull up the Inspector panel (option-command-i) and watch it switch between the desktop and the window or the selections therein.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    cindercinder Posts: 381member
    I can't decide if that's cool - or really annoying
  • Reply 4 of 7
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    I suppose it might be cool if it minimized any open windows that obscured the desktop.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    And since it doesn't... it's just plain annoying. Switching focus to a window brings that window the forefront so that it is usable. Nothing short of hiding all windows in, frankly, all apps, would bring the desktop to the 'fore', so it seems like a rather useless item to have in the switch ring.



    Time to file with bugreport...
  • Reply 6 of 7
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    That's not a bug. A lot of us don't need to use the mouse or eyes to navigate through the filesystem. We just remember the filenames, switch to a particular window and start typing the name. The correct document will be selected. Cmd-O to open. Frankly I would hate for the Desktop to be removed from the switching queue. The Desktop *is* a window.



    It's a major convenience to people like me who navigate by keyboard more than others and it's only a minor annoyance to people who don't care for it.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    It's a bug.



    The Desktop is NOT a window. It has no title bar, it has no close/minimize/zoom controls. You cannot move it, resize it, or put it in column or list view.



    It conforms to no definition of window other than "It shows icons"... which is a pretty lousy definition. (Quick test: Write a class definition for a Window, complete with behaviour methods. Now subclass Desktop from it... if you had to turn *off* methods to get your desired behaviour, then you have an ill-conceived IsA relationship, and should scrap it.)



    The Desktop is it's own special little beast, and should *NOT* be treated as Just Another Window. It's not.



    Command-~ has a well defined behaviour in every application EXCEPT the Finder, which has decided that Other Thing shall be treated like a Window for 'just this action'. Bollocks. That's Windows(tm) UI design.



    Having to figure out why my windows all went inactive for no good reason while attempting to change windows is bad UI design... anytime you make the user have to investigate why something doesn't work as consistently expected, you've failed as a UI designer.



    If you want to switch to the desktop, request a dedicated keystroke from Apple, because bastardizing Cmd-~ for it is just dumb. Or, better yet, open up a window to ~eugene/Desktop. Voila. You get your easy access to the Desktop, and they don't have to break the UI to do it.



    For the record, I too use the keyboard to navigate, and rarely touch the mouse when traversing the filesystem. It's no great feat, really. UI design is... and this time they dropped the ball.



    [ 09-23-2002: Message edited by: Kickaha ]</p>
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