“VTR OK” but no TimeCode ??

[Mark Palmos]

[Shane Ross] “CUT AND PASTE CLIPS ON THE FINDER LEVEL? Who does that?”

hmmm
power users? people who want to do things with one step rather than three.
drag and drop is so much less powerful, it assumes you can see both locations at the same time. Cut and paste, you could do several operations in between if you want. I prefer keyboard over mouse whenever it is possible… much faster.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I see where you are coming from now.

[mark palmos] “why does the delete key not delete in finder? apple backspace is not an intuitive command, and dragging files to a trash can that acts drunk when you move towards it is not much fun”

This is just a workflow thing. Apple-delete is not hard to remember and it will soon become your friend. AS far as a drunk trash container, you can turn off all dock animations in the sys prefs > dock.

[mark palmos] “i would expect a powerful os like osx to allow users to see actual paths, paths written in text which you can copy and paste in any file open requester or any other computer fields to take you immediately to that place.”

I could see how that could be a problem if you are used to working like that. Unfortunately for some, the Mac is heavily GUIed. Using Terminal might be your text based nirvana.

[mark palmos] “why cant one cut and paste files in finder”

Great question. If you set up a drag an drop to another drive, let’s say, if you hold the apple key, it will copy your files, then delete them from the orig directory. If it deosn’t work right, finder will let you know.

[mark palmos] “”applications” in finder are often actually folders containing a bunch of files, why does apple hide the contents from users?”

To prevent corruption I’d imagine, but you can right click (or control-click) on any app icon and choose show package contents.

[mark palmos] “in general, though osx is very sophisticated in many ways, apple tend to dumb down things and its what i find really irritating about the interface”

Yeah, it’s that GUI thing again.

[mark palmos] “I have tried two sets of two monitors (none made by apple) and the ATI 1900 card makes the desktop and application text a bit fuzzy in places, almost asif the screen resolution is incompatible with the monitors.”

Have you calibrated your monitor and checked out the appearance sys prefs or display sys prefs? They have controls for font smoothing and size. I have two monitors and a 1900, everything looks great, even the shotty ole second monitor I have for my bins. You haven’t installed any weird drivers have you?

[mark palmos] “gotta sleep now, but if you are really interested i will post a link to my full list once i post it on the edit*ors forum”

Love to. Let me know when it’s up.

Jeremy

[Shane Ross]

[mark palmos] “why does the delete key not delete in finder? apple backspace is not an intuitive command”

So that you don’t ACCIDENTALLY delete something by pressing one errant key…by accident. Making it two keys makes it so that you know what you are doing. And I find it VERY intuitive…

[mark palmos] ” would expect a powerful os like osx to allow users to see actual paths, paths written in text which you can copy and paste in any file open requester or any other computer fields to take you immediately to that p”

Get to know TERMINAL…in your UTILITIES folder. That does command line type stuff. UNIX based…so different than WIndows. But that opens a LOT of possibilites to the power user.

[mark palmos] “”applications” in finder are often actually folders containing a bunch of files, why does apple hide the contents from users?”

NO clue about what you mean here. Applications are stored in the APPLICATIONS folder, and are for the most part single files that you double click on to open. You can also add them to the dock by dragging them there. I have only a FEW applications inside folders (Both MICROSOFT, BTW…Windows Media Player and Office) but they usually contain a couple components the main application needs. And again, drag the applications to the DOCK if you was fast access.

I don’t know what you mean by Apple “hiding” contents from users.

[mark palmos] ” OH yes, the text on screen is fuzzy!! I have tried two sets of two monitors (none made by apple) and the ATI 1900 card makes the desktop and application text a bit fuzzy in places, almost asif the screen resolution is incompatible with the monitors.”

THen you need to choose a resolution that works for those monitors. No Brainer.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Andy Mees]

[Shane Ross] “Applications are stored in the APPLICATIONS folder, and are for the most part single files that you double click on to open. You can also add them to the dock by dragging them there. I have only a FEW applications inside folders (Both MICROSOFT, BTW…Windows Media Player and Office) but they usually contain a couple components the main application needs. And again, drag the applications to the DOCK if you was fast access.”

Hey buddy, ya know Mark is correct. Applications are actually special bundles of files that just act as a single executable when double clicked … as Jeremy pointed out, you can see the contents of the “.app” bundle by right-clicking and choosing “Show Contents”…

…but in most cases there is absolutely no need to.
Mark, they are “hidden” only because there is no usual need for you to see and/or have access to those unix executables and bundled frameworks etc. I don’t know about you, but when I want to launch an app I want to just double click it, not drill down through a folder heiracchy of these otherwise useless to me libraries and frameworks etc. As an analogy, I just want to climb into my car through the car door, turn the ignition and drive off into the sunset, I don’t want to have to get to the steering wheel by climbing through the engine.

All the inner workings are available to anyone who wants to look, but Apple took the initiative to clean up this stuff from the majority who just aren’t interested. The intention is not to hide it in any sneaky sense of the word. Its all right there if you choose to look.

As for more text based path navigation et al, I’ve seen folks (mostly developers) working on their macs, and the screen is a blur they operate it so darn fast, using just the keyboard. Do investigate Terminal if thats your thing.

As for being able to cut, copy and paste files at the finder level, i’m with you. Copy and Paste work as you’d expect, darned if I can come up with a good explanation for why Cut doesn’t. Wish it did.

17 days in now … how’s it going

Cheers
Andy

[Mark Palmos]

Hi there Andy,
thanks for the friendly reply!
i have a comment on one of yours:

[Andy Mees] “. I don’t know about you, but when I want to launch an app I want to just double click it, not drill down through a folder heiracchy of these otherwise useless to me libraries and frameworks etc.”

yes, absolutely! When starting a programme I wnat to launch easily and quickly… nothing i have seen IMO beats windows XP classic for speed where you put the icons for all the programmes you use in the top level of the start menu, so you press the windows button once, down arrow to the icon you want, press enter and the programme starts. When browsing a computer, I want to be able to see every single file, every location, everything, but dont want to have to open some other (terminal) application. I am not in love with DOS (or unix) i just want to be able to do whatever I want and not be protected and hampered by an EEZEE operating system interface. Macintosh Explorer is not bad, you can copy and paste the path, but OSX open file dialogue will not allow you to paste a path in the search field, and there is no field for entering a path or filename, so this shortcut method is missing.

usually in windows, if i want to delete something, I am sure i want to delete it and press shift-delete, so it doesnt even go to the trash can but is gone for good. If I think there is a 1% chance of wanting it back, i press the delete key, windows says “are you sure?” i press enter and it goes to the trash can (and can be salvaged at a later date).

talking of speed, my 8 core is nice, but does not feel any faster than my dual opteron HP9300 running XP (vista is abysmal)

thanks mate
Mark.

[Andy Mees]

here you go Mark, theres always a way:

one popular way to have access all your apps is to drag and drop your Applications folder onto the right hand side of the Dock, after the divider line which separates apps and documents.
then you can have your cake and eat it, with specific favorite apps directly in the left hand side of the Dock for one click eezee launching ( to add an app, just drag and drop the apps icon directly into the left hand side of the dock ) and access to the entire Applications directory by clicking the Applications folder icon on the right hand side of the Dock.

thats mouse driven tho, not keyboard… if you’re looking to speed up your workflow with full keyboard control then I can’t recommend Quicksliver enough, insanely fast.
https://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/quicksilver
the same people make an app called Visor, which provides instant hotkey access to a terminal window (just in case) https://docs.blacktree.com/visor/visor

can’t help with the full path thing, but if you are seriously looking for a Finder alternative, I’d recommend looking at PathFinder from cocoatech
https://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/

word of warning though, on the whole its not at all recommended to mess with the workings of your primary edit station, most prefer to run them lean and clean.

hope thats useful, if increasingly off topic!
cheers
Andy

[Mark Palmos]

[Andy Mees] “drag and drop your Applications folder onto the right hand side of the Dock”

Thanks Andy, I will give that a bash today… i should probably be posting this stuff on the osx forum, you are right.

and also, WRT quicksilver, i agree that the less running in the background the better, i could put up with a mouse click or three 😉

till later
mark.