New Finder idea

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Now, I know people have discussed this to death... and there are those who think Finder is great, and there are those who use abbreviations such as FTFF* to express their feelings about Finder.



I was reading a thread about Finder over here, and I really liked the new Finder mockup some guy named moonmonkey did. It has all I want from the new Finder, save for tabs.



What do you guys think should be fixed in the new Finder, and what do you guys think this guy got right, and what wrong?













*Fix The F-cking Finder.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 45
    Right: Spotlight in the Finder is the focus.



    Wrong: The layout. The Spotlight criteria interface still looks like Tiger's broken Spotlight criteria interface (not user-friendly).



    This criteria interface we see in the mockup (and the one we have in Tiger today in the Finder) should be an advanced option. Apple should simplify the way a user can sort through document metadata.
  • Reply 2 of 45
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    There are tons of things that don't work right, but



    - "New Folder" doesn't appear in the Contextual Menu unless you are able to click in white space. If the current column has no white space because it has a lot of items in in, you are SOL.



    - Can't Copy the name of a Finder Item with the Contextual Menu. Click the name to make it editable, and then try to right-click it to copy it. Hah-hah!!!
  • Reply 3 of 45
    I'd like to see GnomeVFS-style network abstraction. The folder in your home that says "Work" could be a remote NFS volume, an SFTP server, etc. You don't care, because you can open it and edit (double-click) documents in it as if it were a local folder.



    None of this Finder bullshit like broken FTP and slow iDisk mounts (ever dragged an iDisk folder around in the Finder?).



    Network plugins + keychain = seamless networking.
  • Reply 4 of 45
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R

    I'd like to see GnomeVFS-style network abstraction. The folder in your home that says "Work" could be a remote NFS volume, an SFTP server, etc. You don't care, because you can open it and edit (double-click) documents in it as if it were a local folder.



    None of this Finder bullshit like broken FTP and slow iDisk mounts (ever dragged an iDisk folder around in the Finder?).



    Network plugins + keychain = seamless networking.




    Surely it shouldn't *look* like a local folder...what if the network is down or if you're off the network for some reason or another...the folder would simply disappear? or become unopenable? This ain't cool and would confuse many.



    The concept of *knowing* what is *your* stuff and what isn't is very powerful.
  • Reply 5 of 45
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Yeah I agree that idea is...bad and un-Apple.



    Spotlight needs heavy improvement but I like where it's going. That mockup is also in the right direction.



    Tabs. Should be there, as an option. Off by default. Cause I would friggin love them, and I'm sure plenty of other people would too.
  • Reply 6 of 45
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kim kap sol

    Surely it shouldn't *look* like a local folder...what if the network is down or if you're off the network for some reason or another...the folder would simply disappear? or become unopenable? This ain't cool and would confuse many.



    The concept of *knowing* what is *your* stuff and what isn't is very powerful.




    Well presumably the icon for a remote folder would be different, and yes the icon would be pervasive, connecting or dying trying when double-clicked. I prefer that idea to launching an FTP app, downloading a file, editing it, and uploading it.



    The closest I can get on a mac is found in BBedit's open via ftp option.
  • Reply 7 of 45
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquatic

    Yeah I agree that idea is...bad and un-Apple.



    Spotlight needs heavy improvement but I like where it's going. That mockup is also in the right direction.



    Tabs. Should be there, as an option. Off by default. Cause I would friggin love them, and I'm sure plenty of other people would too.






    Gosh, I need tabs so bad.
  • Reply 8 of 45
    dacloodacloo Posts: 890member
    www.cocoatech.com



    PathFinder4 has tabs. And does a lot more!
  • Reply 9 of 45
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Bad Finder:



    When I have a selection hilighted and hit the [delete} key they should delete or move to trash...really annoying when I have to grab the mouse and drag (or right-click->move to trash) to do that.
  • Reply 10 of 45
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    Bad Finder:



    When I have a selection hilighted and hit the [delete} key they should delete or move to trash...really annoying when I have to grab the mouse and drag (or right-click->move to trash) to do that.



    Um. Cmd-Backspace?
  • Reply 11 of 45
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    Um. Cmd-Backspace?



    Shhh, that's too easy.
  • Reply 12 of 45
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    Shhh, that's too easy.



    Seems so.
  • Reply 13 of 45
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    Um. Cmd-Backspace?



    ummm...using Windows, KDE, Gnome and others, [del] deletes...what is the point of having a delete key if you cannot delete with it...



    cmd+backspace works, thanks, but [del] shouild work, I defy you to give me one good reason why [del] should not move selected item(s) to trash...
  • Reply 14 of 45
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    I defy you to give me one good reason why [del] should not move selected item(s) to trash...



    Maybe because all other keyboard shortcuts require the command* key as well?



    *) Guess why it's named that?
  • Reply 15 of 45
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by a_greer

    cmd+backspace works, thanks, but [del] shouild work, I defy you to give me one good reason why [del] should not move selected item(s) to trash...



    Because it's too easy to hit Delete by mistake, when moving the keyboard, etc., and the results (deleting a file(s) and not knowing it) are too risky. Requiring two keys prevents that.



    However, Delete does delete in iTunes, iPhoto, Safari Bookmarks, etc. without warning. Interesting. I suppose the reasoning is that those are aliases and can always be recreated, or Undo used.
  • Reply 16 of 45
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lundy

    Because it's too easy to hit Delete by mistake, when moving the keyboard, etc., and the results (deleting a file(s) and not knowing it) are too risky. Requiring two keys prevents that.





    well, the trash can is the fail-safe for that...ooops! I needed that, Oh, OK just restore from trash.

    And for the record, other OSs warn you the first time you use [del] that "the item(s) will be moved to trash/recycle bin" and have a "dont warn me again" check box to disable the warning if you wish.
  • Reply 17 of 45
    durandaldurandal Posts: 277member
    Talking about new Finder ideas... appearantly someone's developing a new Finder alternative: http://www.filerun.info/ ( found it via the german page http://www.macnews.de )



    Regards,

    durandal
  • Reply 18 of 45
    wow - that looks great as well. Cocoatech won't like this at all
  • Reply 19 of 45
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    That does look mighty cool. I dig the way it shows the full path.
  • Reply 20 of 45
    I think it's overcluttered and fugly. Way more information is presented than is needed, or IMHO, wanted. When was the last time you wanted to go to your Mac HD -> Users -> folder? Which of your documents is _not_ in your home folder? Which of your apps is _not_ in your Applications folder? The point of a UI is to abstract the info in a meaningful way. I say this as someone who is very comfortable on the command line. A UI should be the opposite of the command line.
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