Thanks to Ars Technica, we’ve got some Snow Leopard goodness for you. As always, Apple is quite secretive about its upcoming operating system, so even though test builds are released every now and then, information is scarce. An Ars reader has given some more insights into the latest Snow Leopard build, released on Friday.
Apparently, the list of known issues is shrinking, which indicates that the operating system is getting polished up. Apart from the expected upgrade of Safari 4 Developer Preview to the recently released Safari 4 beta, this new seed contains some other interesting updates as well.
Apple continues its Cocoa push, updating more and more parts of the operating system to use it. The Finder has been the focus of the Cocoa love fest in this build, such as the Desktop, Get Info window, and Contextual Menus. The QuickTime player has gotten a new minimal user interface, following in the footsteps of Windows 7’s Windows Media Player, which also introduced a minimal user interface.
A lot of work is also going into something very mundane: text. Snow Leopard will have all sorts of small new features that should make working with text a little easier, system-wide. For starters, the automatic spell correction of the iPhone has made the transition to its big brother on the desktop, albeit without the pop-up bubbles. The user just needs to press the spacebar to fix obvious spelling mistakes. Applications that make use of Core Text will all support this feature.
That’s not all for text, though. Apple also introduces substitutions, a feature coming from PalmOS and Microsoft Word. Simply put, it for instance means that if you type “(c)”, it will be replaced by a proper copyright sign (joke alert: should make those cease and desist letters easier to write, ey, Cupertino?). Users can also define their own substitutions. It’s a Core Text feature, so should be system wide.
Services for text have become easier to access, via the context menu for selected text. For instance, you can select a bit of text, bring up the context menu, and it will include an item that says “send to Mail”. Transformations are new, and allow you to transform selected text to all caps, for instance, or vice versa. Handy if you accidentally typed something while caps lock was on.
Data Detectors, which come from NeXT, have also been made system wide. Right now, they’re already in Mail, where they identify phone numbers, email addresses, etc. or offer to turn an email into an iCal event. In Snow Leopard, they will be system wide, which makes them even more useful than they already were.
The text features are exactly the type of thing that separate Mac OS X from Windows, Linux, and others when it comes to well-thought out, small, but extremely handy features that developers can implement simply by using the various Core frameworks in Mac OS X. Forget the RDF, forget the cultism: Mac OS X simply has a lot of these features that genuinely make the operating system easier to use than Windows and Linux in a number of areas.
Don’t get me wrong, I like OSX (using it right now on my MBP, in fact…).
For whatever reason, there are an equally large number of “obvious” improvements that are left out. Other than coverflow, Finder is a joke – why does enter rename files? Why is copy/paste sometimes disabled/broken? Why use “replace” instead of “merge” when copying/moving directories like every other OS out there? The list goes on. It’s pretty lame I have to fire up a Terminal and cp/rsync my data to merge it.
One thing that really bugs me is how *some* OSX dialogs seem to ignore tab/enter/space bar. Having used Linux/Windows most of my life I’ve come to expect the operating system to be completely navigable by keyboard, and yet there are times when OSX forces me to grab the mouse. Very annoying.
In the keyboard & mouse preference pane, under “keyboard shortcuts” select “All controls” under Full keyboard access to be able to tab around everything. Ctrl-f7 toggles this setting (according to the text in the pref pane).
I usually run with “all controls” so i can jump around more easily without needing the mouse.
Thanks! I really appreciate your comment. I didn’t know about that.
Even so there are times when you cannot navigate around easily only with keyboard. For example, there’s a menu item named “Disable Caches” in the Develop menu of Safari (4 Beta).
In order to press that menu with keyboard you have to:
Press Ctrl+F2, Left Arrow (3 times), Down Arrow (9 times), Enter
Compare this to Windows:
Press Alt+D, the mnemonic character for that menu item.
It is really a shame that there are certain actions that cannot be carried out in OS X as smoothly as Windows, Gnome, KDE, and other desktop environments…
Edited 2009-03-08 14:16 UTC
Wrong. You’ve obviously not used OS X’s menus via keyboard extensively. Ctrl+f2, d, down arrow, d. Much simpler, isn’t it? Keyboard navigation in menus operates like it does everywhere else in OS X, that is, you type in as much of the menu or item name as you need in order to jump to it. The practical upshot of this is you need not remember odd menu shortcuts when you remember the item you’re looking for, and you don’t end up with menu items that can’t be navigated to by letters like you sometimes do in Windows when the app developer has not assigned an accelerator.
Perhaps because it was like that for Mac Users since forever? I really don’t like the unobvious F2 of Windows. Having to use command keys to open / delete a file is IHMO much more intuitive since ‘open’ / ‘delete’ are commands. The ‘enter’ / ‘delete’ combo of Windows is way to easy to reach and – since Windows still has no trashcan for network drives – way to dangerous.
What do you mean. I never had any problems with that.
Because that would break the logic of paste. Or does paste “merge” your text / pictures / etc. from the clipboard to the spot where you paste it?
And have you never lost file because of the silly Windows implementation of said features?
Or had to manually “merge” because Windows was not able to move all the files because someone had a file or directory open somewhere within the structure you wanted to move?
I prefer the ‘all or nothing’ way of Mac OS. I never had to wait for hours to copy a big directory structure just to see a “target disk full” message five seconds before the copy was done. Or a could not move file because the filename is too long (what a joke!).
Go figure how funny it is to manually start searching within a list of >1000 files what was copied / moved and what not!
Let me guess. You’re missing Windows explorer, arn’t you? I guess most Mac users don’t.
Examples? I never had that problem.
That doesn’t make it the proper behaviour. I’m not saying it’s wrong – I’m just saying that “because it has always been like that” is not a reason not to change something.
Personally, “enter” means process, activate to me. Renaming with enter is just weird, and I’ve been a Mac user for a very long time.
Uhm, yes, it actually does. If you select some text in document Xyz, and paste it to document Abc, it gets appended after wherever the cursor is in document Abc – leaving the text in the target document intact – merging the two.
When copying/pasting directories, merging should be the default because it’s non-destructive and fits in better with other cases of copy/paste (like text). You could always implement a modifier to enable replace.
Uhm, merging is non-destructive, and in Windows, you get a nice dialog when duplicate files are encountered, asking you to select the appropriate option. Windows’ implementation is exactly geared towards non-destructiveness, while the replace variant, used by Mac OS X, is destructive.
So no, you don’t lose any files because of Windows file paste behaviour. Quite the contrary, actually.
This has nothing to do with the discussion at hand, but Mac OS X has the same problems. Try deleting a file that’s in use. Good luck hunting down which application is currently using it!
The Finder is one of the most maligned parts of the Mac OS. Even in Leopard, it is still a very cumbersome and limited file manager, which is why it receives so much ire from most reviewers.
Yes, I have too lost some files due to stupid OSX overwrite copying. I stared in disbelief – the dialogue doesn`t help and doesn`t warn you anything like this might actually happen.
IMHO, any kind of dialogue like this that can lead to data loss (`cept the Trash can, of course), is a BAD design. Windows doesn`t do this.
There are way too many annoyances in Finder. Why on earth can`t I sort files by size in Open/Save dialogues or spotlight searches? Size or creation date doesn`t even show in these windows! Why Finder can`t display metadata (photo dimensions, video lenght…) in Finder? Why can`t I search on non-indexed drives (yes, I know I can hack Spotlight to index NTFS). Vista is WAY better in file management. Combine OSX niceties like springfolders and exposé with Vista Explorer and you`ve got a winner.
Edited 2009-03-08 12:29 UTC
Off topic, but I really really really hate that behavior. The should let you do whatever the hell you want with files, open or not open. I routinely course at work on Windows because the thing won’t let me touch opened files (and sometimes the concept of “opened” on Windows is quite nonsensical).
Try Sloth if you use OSX, it helps to find what program is using a file.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22535
info
That really annoys me in windows too… Unlocker usually fixes it – http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
I agree mostly but it is still better than most other free filemanagers out there.
Windows Explorer, utter joke, Nautilus, this one is even worse than explorer. I only would rate konqueror high, as for Dolphin, I cannot get warm to it.
To sum it up, if you want something decent either learn and that seriously means learn, konqueror, or shell out some money for the better alternatives!
But because in Windows and Linux it is differnt IS a reason to change it? Just because you’re used to it?
I don’t believe you that you’ve “been a Mac user for a very long time”. Maybe if “long time” means “more than 2 weeks” to you. I used Windows for 5 years, followed by 3 years Linux. Since then (1 1/2 years) I’m using OS X. Guess what, I’m used to rename with Enter since several months and it really is helping to “enter, rename, enter. bam. done.” OR “cmd-down several directories followed by cmd-down start the document I was looking for”.
A file is a file. Text is text. Mixing those two to produce irrelevant and confusing arguments is stupid.
You could also implement a modifier to enable merge. To follow your logic (and avoid the stupid text vs file comparison, instead showing you an example file vs folder example): If I copy a file I can replace it if it exists. If I copy a folder it should replace a folder if it exists. Guess what: that’s what the Finder does.
Congratulations! You really did NOT use OS X for a significant time. Otherwise you would know that renaming and moving files to the trash is indeed possible when it’s in use by an application.
Yes, revieweres like you are right.
Did I say so?
18 whole months? wow! I’ve been a Mac user since 2002 or 2003.
It’s about destructiveness. It’s more important that files do not get lost. Merging makes sure that this does not happen – replace makes people lose files, and there is no “undo” feature, which makes it even less desirable.
Yes, smartbum, and then try to empty the trash. You can indeed move a file that’s in use to the trash, but if you then try to delete it, it isn’t possible.
I’ve used Mac OS X for a long time now, since 2002/2003 (like I said, a little longer than your measly 18 months), so I know my shit.
I’ve yet to find a truly positive review of the Finder. Everyone I know hates it, most people here hate, for the simple reason that it’s a very limited application.
*sigh*
Another ‘I – Thom H. – am right and Apple is wrong’ rant ..
No, but it is quite obvious where you get your ideas from..
*tss*
The OS is asking you, if you like to replace the file / folder. Nothing get’s lost accidentially (if you’re not stupid and blindly think that it will act like Explorer).
Merging on the other hand means that you don’t know exactly what you get, because files deep down in the hierarchy you’re copying should or should not be merged.
I prefere to know the outcome of an operation before I do it and the outcome is crystal clear when it comes to the Mac implementation. No silly Explorer behaviour like “Oh, sorry, I just moved half of the files you liked to move and then hit one which was locked by another process so I just stopped copying in the middle of nowhere. Go find out yourself what I did or didn’t.”
BTW: If you really think that losing files is bad, please tell me why the Windows ‘delete’ behaves differently for a local file (goes to the trash) and a file from a networked drive (will be deleted immediately). Now, that’s dangerous and annoying!
At least you have it in the trash and can delete it later. That’s what the trash is for: mark files for later removal. So the Mac implementation is all ok.
On the other side, try moving a file in Windows to the trash. You can’t. You can’t mark it for removal. So you have to think about it and do it later. Do you really think this is better?!
Time doesn’t matter that much. There are users that constantly try to get it the way they are used to from other platforms and others who learn to use it how it was meant to be on the platform they use.
Maybe you should start using the Finder the way it was meant to be. E. g. the Mac Finder was designed to be used with several windows open at once unlike Explorer which is often used in a ‘single window’ mode and hence would be unusable without things like ‘cut’ to move files.
No problem. Finder is a very good file browser. I really like it much, much more than inconsistent, slow and buggy Windows Explorer (and I use both on a daily basis). The fact that Windows people get problems because they expect things to behave like Explorer doesn’t matter for most long time Mac users. It is not very suprising then that Mac users mostly miss other features in Finder than switchers who are not willing to learn new things.
If you don’t like Finder: there are other file browsers for Mac. Find one that fits into you’re small world view..
…?
What is this weird thing that Apple fanatics have, where if you crticize a specific, small, isolated behaviour in Mac OS X, you’re automatically approving of all behaviour in Windows? Where does this come from? Can you only OR hate ALL that Apple does, OR hate ALL that Windows does?
I’m sorry, but my world isn’t as black and white as yours. Mac OS X and windows both suck a whole load of monkey balls, just like every other operating system out there. Suckage is a mandatory framework of operating systems, and Apple has been beating Mac OS X with t3h suck stick just as much as Microsoft has been beating Windows.
I’m pretty sick of people having this “OR… OR” view on operating systems. Just because you start farting fairy dust whenever you use an Apple product doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to AND criticise it, AND still not like Windows.
It both sucks. Mac OS X gives you the wrong impression, and Windows doesn’t let you mark it. The proper behaviour, of course, would be to state why the file can’t be removed, which file we’re talking about if it’s part of a batch, what program is using it, and how we can resolve the issue.
Again, just because I think Apple’s way sucks monkey balls doesn’t mean Microsoft’s way can’t suck monkey balls either.
Except… I’m not a Windows person. I’ve actually never met a file manager that I found pleasant to use, Explorer sucks, Finder sucks, Tracker sucks, Nautilus sucks… You name it.
Once again, just because I don’t like the Finder, doesn’t mean I automatically have to like Explorer. The world isn’t black and white.
Yes:
Still it is not consequent. As I said: replace file X with Y and file X is gone. Same with a folder. File=object. Folder=object. Simple as that.
Both ways are therefore acceptable. They are just different. You prefer one way but claim it to be the right one. Thats … stupid, sorry.
Because it’s in use. Do you expect magic to happen?
Oh, come on … Now I’ve seen everything – someone supporting this. If you take a close look at your keyboard you might notice that on the Delete key it’s written DELETE. Guess what it should do? How is Cmd+Backspace obvious? And what about the big oddly shaped key people refer to as Enter, what should its function be? I don’t know … maybe OPEN? No, Apple has to be different and guess what it does … wait for it, wait for it … RENAME!!!
And how might one go about opening a file? Well how about the obvious combination Cmd+O or Cmd+Down? That’s what I call user friendliness.
Want to hear more about why Finder sucks? Here you go:
What about the lack of Cut in Finder? If I want to move something I have to drag it around like a drunken monkey, but God forbid I drag it on another volume, because then the retarded Finder will copy it. That’s consistency right there for you.
How about the lack of the “New File” option in the context menu?
How about the lack of an Up button (like go to parent directory)?
How about an easy way to show/hide hidden files?
How about when you want to find out the combined size of a few directories. In Windows I select them all, right click and select Properties. In OS X if I select Get Info I get a shitload of Info windows.
And let’s not forget … a way to show folders first? You know, like every other file manager in the world.
Yes, Finder is a half-baked retarded piece of crap designed by brain-dead idiots. The worst (and sadly the most used) application on OS X. Anyone who says otherwise either doesn’t know what he’s talking about or is trolling.
Probably because they are too busy padding themselves on the back for the fine fashion accessory they’ve purchased.
How about the Shutdown one? It’s true you can press Ctrl+F7 and then you can Tab through the options, but why should I?
Because of stuff like this I’m contemplating completely wiping OS X from my Macbook and installing Vista or XP. I hate the fact that Apple wants you to do all things only one way … their way. I just wish I could turn back time and not spend 1000eur on a laptop that I have to struggle with every day to do what I want.
Excuse the language but I’m so f*cking frustrated by this f*cking piece of f*cking s*it.
Edited 2009-03-08 13:59 UTC
Hehe.. I agree with a lot of what you said re. the Finder. I was never frustrated though, I sold the thing (well, to trade PCC for an x86 Linux device).
What you could do without having to install a different OS, is installing (over the Darwin ports) KDE or Gnome on your present OS X. Nautilus to the rescue. 🙂
I believe the “Path” icon will do the job for you. Or press Command + Up Arrow.
Just press Option + Command + I after selecting folders.
I’m not sure which view option you are using. If you are in the List view, there is a column called “Kind” and you can order folders (not first though). You can do the same thing in the Icon view but not in the Column view.
You don’t have to use Tab. In the Shutdown dialog, press R to restart your computer. Press S to sleep. Press Enter to shutdown. Press Esc (or Command + .) to close the dialog.
Edited 2009-03-08 15:14 UTC
Sure, you can use the Path Icon, you can press Alt+Cmd+I, you can sort by kind in the list view after you put a space before the “Folder” word in English.lproj/InfoPlist.string, you can learn a bunch of shortcuts to operate a simple dialog and this just for the stuff that you can do. Where’s the famous Apple ease of use?
It’s easy to use as long as you do things precisely the way Apple engineers want you to do.
After my Macbook adventure I swear I won’t buy anything Apple ever again. And to think I wanted to buy an Apple TV. Luckily I’ve looked a little on the internet and saw that you have to open the damn thing up and do some command line voodoo just to play DivX. This is ridiculous!
Edited 2009-03-08 15:18 UTC
Just to pop in here, no matter if no one cares:
Just press Option + Command + I after selecting folders.
That’s not in any way obvious to the user, and when Apple seems to like to encourage users to use mouse how does one get the same result without resorting to keyboard shortcuts?
I’m not sure which view option you are using. If you are in the List view, there is a column called “Kind” and you can order folders (not first though). You can do the same thing in the Icon view but not in the Column view.
That’s one of the biggest reasons I hate Finder. Folders are used for navigating through the filesystem so it makes sense to have them at the top for faster navigation. And files are still files, directly useable, no matter what kind of files they are. So, it makes sense to group them all together and then sort them by their file type.
Indeed, OSX is pretty but I just hate Finder so much that I very rarely touch the whole thing. I’d install Linux on it, but it’s a PPC Mac and the open-source nVidia drivers aren’t yet too shabby… :<
Well I just shelled out a few bucks for pathfinder, I am much more happy now…
If you dont like to pay, get yourself muCommander.
But finder still is way better than the shit gnome calls filemanager!
My personal favorites are TotalCommander (which is the best no matter which platform, unfortunately Windows only) second, Konqueror, once you have mastered kio:fish and the shortcuts the thing is one of the most powerful filemanagers ever done and then probably pathfinder is distant third it just misses a bunch of things, like total keyboard navigation and virtual filesystems for sftp, ftp and webdav…
Every command under OS X has to be done with the Cmd modifier. So if I want to open a file, guess what will I try? Cmd+O[pen]. That’s what I call user friendliness.
It’s not retarded, it’s just that you are used to other file managers that copy Windows Explorer. If you drag a file to the same volume, Finder moves it. If you drag a file to another volume, Finder copies it. How is that inconsistent or retarded? You can use Cmd while you drag the file to reverse the behavior anyway.
Because you use apps to create these files. It’s not Finder’s job.
Right click on title bar, or enable the path bar.
Cmd-Option-I.
Way to not be taken seriously.
How about enabling full keyboard access in System Preferences?
How about this: you are already in the directory where you want to create a new text file. You could either:
1) right click > new text document
2) open textedit, save as, navigate all the way to where you already are in finder
Which sounds easier? I’d say 1). Probably you and Steve would say 2), because it’s cool to be different and have few options.
Well, let me make this easy: I’m doing the same action (dragging files) and get two different results. How’s that for consistent?
I don’t want to. I want to press just one button to do something that elementary. Not two. And if they don’t want to add an Up button, why don’t they enable the Path button by default? I’ll tell you why – because simple is beautiful (even if you can’t use something as elementary as your File Manager).
Why so complicated? And how the hell is a normal using going to guess that? If Windows does something it doesn’t mean it’s bad by default. But, again, Apple wants to be different just for the sake of it.
And why if I select a few items I get multiple Info windows and if I select more I get a Multiple Items Info window? You call that consistent?
Just stating the obvious, not trying to be taken seriously.
How about “why”? Why this obsession about gratuitous simplicity? Would the ability to press TAB in a dialog box make the OS feel too complicated?
That, right there, ends our little discussion. If you think that something as basic as opening a file requires a key combination than it’s clear that you have a skewed idea of what user friendliness is and no amount of common sense will make you change your mind.
Hmm, if you take a close look at your Mac keyboard, you’ll notice that what is labeled “backspace” on the PC keyboard is labeled as delete. I’ll be darned, guess what command-delete does? Seems pretty obvious to me. Apple has always treated delete this way, even in the Apple II days. It’s different from the PC, but that doesn’t make it wrong.
I’m of two minds on return (it’s labeled return, not enter on Apple keyboards, enter is the numpad enter only and they do have different functions) being used to rename a file. On one hand, I see why it’s frustrating. Everywhere else in the os, return basically means process this action. Highlight a menu item, for example, and press return and it activates. In that regard, the Finder’s behavior is very odd indeed, particularly since numpad enter is used to rename items in a good number of apps. Perhaps they should move it to numpad enter only, and allow return to open the current item. On the other hand, pressing command+o to open the current item makes a good deal of sense also. I guess return to rename really doesn’t bother me, but I can see why it would bother some others.
Now, I have to put in my $.02 about Finder’s paste behavior. I, personally, agree with the way Finder does it. I use column view, so here’s how it makes sense to me. I highlight a folder and paste. When you highlight text in a wordprocessor, then paste over it, what happens? It replaces it, it doesn’t append to it. I look at it the same way in Finder, paste and replace doesn’t mean replace and merge. Replace means replace. Perhaps they should add a merge button so the users can choose what they want to happen in this circumstance.
Wait, doesn’t Windows Explorer also do a copy when dragging a file to a different volume and a move when dragging to another location on the same volume?
Windows has the right click drag though, which is pretty awesome. I wish OS X had it sometimes.
Of course it does it like that, just like Mac OS X, and any other sane implementation. Copying from volume to volume is a dangerous task, and can be very prone to destruction. As such, it makes 110% sense to perform a copy instead of a move when dragging between volumes.
In addition, this behaviour is probably most common when people want to place some files on a USB stick to bring them along to school or friends or whatever. From that perspective, it makes even less sense to do a move instead of a copy.
What he’s talking about is because of not having Cut in the Finder. I hate this too.
Say you want to move a 4 GB DVD image from an external drive to another external drive. You cannot click it, select Cut and then find the destination folder.
No, you have to drag it around. Now what if you accidentally drop it on the Desktop? Bam, now you have to wait for 4 GB to copy onto the molassas slow laptop drive. (Oh how I wish I’d noticed Apple changed back to a 5,200 RPM laptop drive on that model. What were they thinking, that users would rather have an extra 50 GB instead of a faster drive? Morons.)
“Maybe it (the Return key renaming files) has been around on the Macintosh since forever”
True, but from 1984 to 1999, Command-N created a new folder. Mac OS X made it open a new Finder window. If they could change the New Folder shortcut that everyone used, they could at least change the Rename shortcut that almost nobody used.
As for “I can fit everyone I know with Blu-ray into a phone box with a disco ball and a six burner BBQ”, I have a Blu-ray drive in my computer and I know someone with a standalone Blu-ray player AND a standalone Blu-ray recorder. Sony and Samsung constantly run promotions down here where if you buy one of their LCD TVs, you get a Blu-ray player via redemption.
And just because HD streaming is going to be viable in 10 years, doesn’t mean that we don’t need an HD media solution right now. Blu-ray is that solution. Remember, 10 years ago DVD wasn’t mainstream.
The claim that protected content path and HDCP in an operating system causes slowness, is absurd. Mac OS X Leopard has HDCP and PCP support, but I don’t think any programs use it yet. I guess they don’t have any reason to if there’s no Blu-ray drives in the machines. PCP does require some fairly hefty underground work in the operating system and that’s why Leopard took longer than earlier OS Xes.
Edited 2009-03-09 10:42 UTC
And that change has still pissed me off to this very day.
When I used OS X I found that annoying too. I figured it was just me who was so stupid not to be able to find the place where I could change that behaviour.
As for your other point, I still use rsync for any transfer from filesystem to filesystem.
You’re battling two toolkits. Carbon and Cocoa. Moving forward, all Cocoa apps [Openstep] have always been and always will be cut/copy/paste.
If we’re lucky, this Cocoa Finder is more like Workspace and Shelf behavior.
Edited 2009-03-08 15:37 UTC
Doing a simple cp -r folder1 folder2 or mv folder1 folder2 on most (if not every) *nix command lines will show you why Finder does the same thing…
Oh, great. Well, I hope they let me turn that off, nothing mor annoying than an os that tries to second guess my typing.
The rest of the text features do look very useful, and I agree, it’s these little things that make using OS X so enjoyable. This is what can happen when integration and the core frameworks are well thought out and properly used throughout the os, you listening, Microsoft and GNOME?
The Services thing is pretty much like the “Activities” we have in IE8. And they’re basically implementing AutoCorrect from Office. Too bad neither of these features are available OS-wide on Windows, though it remains to be seen how effective they will be.
You may think Services is like Activities, but it would be the other way around.
Services are from NeXTSTEP and they are shared services exposed, system-wide, for all applications to leverage. Instead of reinventing the wheel in every application, NeXTSTEP Services were a way for the Developer Community to collaborate.
If I’ve got a Cocoa LaTeX Editor and I’ve got TextEdit.app with a bunch of notes I want to be published in a very formal manner, a smart service from the LaTeX Editor is to expose portions of it’s code that allow for smart tags in TextEdit.app to then be translated to their LaTeX equivalents and published with a choice of class options, pdf/ps/dvi options, so on and so forth, without TextEdit.app to duplicate the LaTeX infrastructure.
Instead of the LaTeX Editor needing to manage the Graphics capabilities inside it’s own application it can leverage other applications to do this and upon final publication the necessary graphics are merged into the final output format, without the need of the LaTeX Editor to house a mini gimp/photoshop set of tools.
LyX is starting to do this [in a manner of speaking] with Gimp.
That sounds pretty flexible. But don’t apps essentially have to be written with a certain ‘class’ of services to expose and consume in mind? What I’m asking is, how does the LaTeX editor know what interface to expose to TextEdit (and vice-versa)? What’s the difference between NeXTSTEP Services and OLE? (Based on the dates of things, it would seem that the NeXT version came first).
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServic…
Yes: Services predates OLE considerably, not to mention so does Distributed Objects and NEXT PDO [Portable Distributed Objects].
Edited 2009-03-09 19:04 UTC
According to AppleInsider, this feature can be turned off completely or on an item-by-item basis. Personally, I think the most sensible way to implement this is to allow applications to have custom dictionaries.
Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose of having system-wide spell checking etc, if it works differently on every app because of app-specific custom dictionaries?
Not really. One example could editing markup like LaTeX or HTML. A built in spell checker that understood and knew that tags weren’t spelling mistakes and could warn you if you misspelled common tags could be quite handy. However applying this dictionary to all text you wrote in all apps would be quite pointless.
Not. With a proper Dictionary exposed for all Applications to leverage, the application can decide to ramp up or ramp down the level of support it wants to use that or not, or via Services.
I really wish people had more exposure to Openstep. It would silence a lot of the criticism or misunderstandings.
Automatic spelling correction and substitution of text is the MOST ANNOYING feature of Microsoft Word. Apple implementing it over the entire operating system is a ridiculous idea for these reasons:
(a). It will break your source code as you type it
(b). It will break languages other than English
(c). It would have broken this list that I’ve just written, showing the “(a)” as an @ symbol, and the “(c)” as a copyright symbol.
Obviously it won’t be turned on for source code.
Obviously it will have dictionaries for other languages.
[/q]
There’s little to be concerned about. You will be able to turn it off.
It seems to me that people assume that because one company implemented auto-correction badly then auto-correction is inherently bad.
Who knows…. Apple might make a good job of it.
Instead of
(b). It will break languages other than English
your reply should read
(b). It will break with all languages other than that weird 17th/18th century version of English spoken in the USA.
Even though often the British version of a word is in Chambers, stupid auto correction often forces the US version on me. This is one feature that will get switched off ASAP after the installation.
lol
What really grinds my gears on Windows and Office is that even though when I install Windows and SPECIFY that I’m NOT from the US, the default dictionary is STILL U.S. ENGLISH. What is the bloody point in specifying regional settings if not even Microsoft’s own software respect them (and yes I have specified my default input language as English (New Zealand)).
Any chances I can upgrade my Mac Mini media center to a Blu-Ray player?
The number of people I know with BluRay players could fit inside a telephone booth with enough room left over for a disco ball and a 6 burner BBQ. BluRay is over rated – unlike DVD, there is no material benefit to the average user who isn’t exactly an audio or video aficionado. With DVD’s there was immediate difference; no rewinding, no deterioration, improvement in quality, longer shelf life etc, things end users really cared about.
As for Apple, they’re banking their future on increasing bandwidth and downloadable movies – and IMHO that is where it’ll be. Physical media will be gone in 10 years when we find that the average person will be purchasing via their set top box the movies they want at the time they want. Bandwidth, not optical media, will be king.
I’ve got a Bluray player and I’ve got a nice TV to go with it. While you can watch upscaled stuff on the TV fine enough, it is rather apparent between 480p and 720p+ without much effort and it’s not simply because the set is a poor upscaler, since it isn’t. Even my clueless mother was able to spot the difference over a visit. I’m also noticing an uptick in friends who are trading up to HD sets and are either considering bluray players or have them now that the price on the actual players are starting to be reasonable. I still think the media needs to come down ten bucks across the board, sure. That’s your anecdotal evidence versus mine. Besides on the internet, I’ve not really heard anyone shit on HD.
Regardless, I don’t really think streaming is the end all of be all. I’ve got Netflix WatchNow and other services on top of downloads all going to my TV. While it’s nice being able to have access to OnDemand-like services — it’s still not enough on my own time and terms like it is with a physical disc. I’ll always choose having an actual long-lasting hardcopy of films I care about instead of hoping whatever service has it and its quality will equal or be decent enough compared to the physical alternative. Currently streaming services don’t look very good at all on my television and they lack things like optional subtitles, which is actually very important in this household.
Sure bandwidth can increase over time and will have an effect on quality, technical issues like delivering subtitles can be overcome — I still doubt that this golden age where streaming will be all things to all people will ever come to pass. Let’s say that bandwidth will be able to match demand, do you really expect all studios to be on board and in agreement on things like licensing to interested sites? I imagine it’ll be quite fragmented for quite some time, if not always. I’m not sure that the DRM issue will ever go away (as much as I’d like it to) for actual *paid downloads* of films just due to the sheer money involved to produce a major film. Region coding and such will still be rearing it’s ugly head, I’m positive.
But back on track here — Do you *really* want to be beholden to your network connectivity to watch a damn movie?
On the other hand, I am rather looking forward to the idea of indie companies being able to roll their own streaming services and gaining better exposure for their work.
Edited 2009-03-08 08:40 UTC
So what? This is Apple we’re talking about here, not Dell or HP.
Blu-Ray is significantly better than DVD. People don’t buy a Mac because they want a cheap good enough solution, they buy them because they want the best experience.
I assume the quote jobs did regarding blue ray was sort of a lame excuse for having set on the wrong horse. But seriously, supporting blue ray legally in an operating system has very serious impact on every layer of IO, Vista suffered through it and paid for everything with absymal performance. I am rather sure we will see blue ray once snow leopard has hit the streets, it is just not as simple as adding yet another codec! My personal guess is Apple didn´t support it because they haven´t had the codebase for now!
Wait, what? Vista was slow because of Blu-Ray? That one’s new. Do tell!
Well, Vista was slow in its early days, but I had no idea this was due to Blu-Ray! *cough*
Edited 2009-03-08 18:41 UTC
Vista still is slow in many aspects, but the filetransfer performance clearly was an issue of the blue ray layer/aka enforced drm layer. In the early days even the transfer of a simple textfile touched the RSA libs integrated in vista several times.
So yes Blue Ray inclusion (drm inclusion) definitely was an issue here. Microsoft probably shot over the top pushing everything through the DRM layer.
But the problem with Blue Ray simply is the encryption touches basically every part of the operating system so that it becomes as hard as possible to tap the data unencryped! And that means huge overhauls to the OS logic!
Source?
I can assure you that what you have written about the way DRM interacts with Vista operations is absurdly false. If you’ve come by this idea through personal investigation, how did you investigate?
If you’re basing your views on some internet sources, I think you probably need to reevaluate their veracity on topics about Windows.
What happened to Linux on the desktop?
Total failure…Ubuntu should’ve been back in 1997.oops
Now I expect segededunum to give us his basement dwelling advice.
“The QuickTime player has gotten a new minimal user interface, following in the footsteps of Windows 7’s Windows Media Player, which also introduced a minimal user interface.”
What? The new quicktime is Snow Leopard follows the path of the implementation made in the version running on the iPhone, Apple clearly is developing Quicktime X from what it did with the iphone. Why a hell the crappy windows media player is coming in the discussion here? Apple is following the footsteps of what it with the iPhone not windows 7 which has nothing to do with the direction that Apple is taking with Quicktime X. Nothing!
“The Services thing is pretty much like the “Activities” we have in IE8.”
IE 8? Are you serious? Services have existed in Mac OS X since the first version of the OS, in fact they have existed back to NextStep. What Apple is doing with Snow Leopard is making them more obvious to use for the user, but they have existed (and some third party applications use them, they have been open to third party developers since the first version of Mac OS X) for many years now. So what IE 8 has anything to do with Services?
And by the way, Activities (now called Accelerators) in IE 8 have little in common with OS X Services anyway, from Microsoft description
“The new Accelerators in Internet Explorer 8 help you quickly perform your everyday browsing tasks without navigating to other websites to get things done. Simply highlight text from any webpage, and then click on the blue Accelerator icon that appears above your selection to obtain driving directions, translate and define words, email content to others, search with ease, and more. ”
This is basically limited to IE 8. And Safari also already supports several basic actions like search in Spotlight, in Google, or the definition in a dictionary. This has been for few years already.
OS X services are
“Services allows a user to access the functionality of one application from within another application. An application that provides a service advertises the operations it can perform on a particular type of data—for example, encryption of text, optical character recognition of a bitmapped image, or generating text such as a message of the day. When the user is manipulating that particular type of data in some application, the user can choose the appropriate item in the Services menu to operate on the current data selection (or merely insert new data into the document).”
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServic…
Quite much more advanced and powerful. Next time please inform yourself…..
Not you won’t get Blue Ray on you mini. You’ll spend a Grand CAD for the better version. Get dinged another $100 or so for a Snow update. Ya I for one could live Happily with 720P , darn Sony and the BR. Don’t believe much in the Stream Dream either.
Might as well wait for the latest Frisbee from ACER and Frak a Hack on it you have to, run with the Cats. They
‘ll be lots of more small form factor to come.
the new Finder will finally let us cut/paste files with the keyboard. Come on Apple, command+x, enable it at long last, please.
Over Steve’s dead body … Oh, wait ..