::scr Ramblings of a Classic Refugee or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love OS X

[Alex Robinson]

WARNING - LARGE RAMBLING POST AHEAD


 >>>> unixy goodness <<<<

taken as read :)


 >>>> classic feel (if not look) <<<<

> I figured that the first things to attempt would be to make OS X's
> interface less offensive through the use of the built-in prefs before I
> got going installing any hacks.

Too right. And kudos to Apple: quite a few of the "hacks" I installed 
have already been subsumed into the built-in prefs. (But let's hope they 
pay off developers who pioneer great new functionality rather than just 
rip off the idea - in this respect Apple has always seemed to lag behind 
Microsoft's much better business sense)

> 1) Reduce the default icon size to less than the size of a dinner plate

CHECK

> 2) Sort out the Dock:
>
> 	a) Reduce the size
> 	b) turn off the cycle-sapping magnification.
> 	c) anchor it to the right of the screen.

CHECK

And auto-hide it.
And not use it for launching apps or minimising windows. Then it makes a 
pretty good open apps list.

> http://homepage.mac.com/vercruesse/cocoa/asm/

CHECK

Except I switched to X-Assist as it also automates the focusing of all 
of an application/the finders windows. Actually when that is built-in 
pref configurable I'll probably just use the dock. Maybe there's already 
a better way to do it...

> Another thing I thought was missing was the familiar trashcan in the
> bottom-right of the screen: 
> http://homepage.mac.com/northernSW/trashx.html

Actually I think the trash in the dock is the biggest UI improvement in 
OSX. It's always there rather than hiding on the desktop obscured by 
some window or other. And since I've anchored the dock to the bottom 
right it's even where (it should | I've come to expect it to) be. Fitts 
Law++

> Pisspoor tabbed app switching

I can live with that (although it would be nice if the behaviour was 
configurable) but I've always found extra gui approaches to just be so 
much additional gui cruft that actually slows you down

> Apple Menu
> http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/fruitmenu.html

CHECK

I'd say that it has the makings of being better than the original 
Classic version. I would be surprised (and annoyed) not to see Apple 
fold this into the mix.

> WindowShadeX

CHECK

I hadn't bothered with it but I've just given it a go. I like it. The 
ability to make windows as transparent as you like them is nice. 
Although leaving the title bar opaque would be better still (but I guess 
rather hard if not impossible to implement). I'd also like to see 
selecting the window from the window menu automagically unshade it 
though. But those niggles apply to Classic too. It's good. And you can 
still minimise if you want too.

Note that WindowShade is by the same guy as FruitMenu. And ShadowKiller. 
He knows Macs all right :)

> Pop-up folders. I *really* miss them, but I've been unable to find a way
> to duplicate their functionality.

Not a biggy for me. However there is this:

PopUpX
     http://www.madoverlord.com/projects/popupx.t
Haven't tried it though

Alternatively you could just adapt and bung your folders on the dock ;)

> Spring-loaded folders. They should never have got rid of these. I was
> gobsmacked that they did since they're so *useful*. Ah well, it's due in
> the next release, I hear.

But still nowhere as good as the functionality provided by PopupFolder 
(which OS8's introduction of spring-loaded folders tragically broke, 
inspiring the developers to give up on the Mac) - springloadedness++ in 
the finder and dialog boxes. Can we have some of that please?



> But am I doing the right thing? Is this not just head-in-the-sand
> behaviour? Should I be embracing the new UI and fitting myself to it
> instead of jumping through all these hoops in order to remain "living in
> the past"? Surely I'm rejecting progress?

No. You are doing the right thing. You are doing what Mac users have 
always done. That *is* progress. If the ui doesn't suit, change it to 
suit. It's your machine. You sit in front of it all/most of the day.


In that vein, here are my demands:


 >>>> I want candy <<<<

There are Kaleidoscope-style replacements (front runner: Duality, 
formerly X-Morph) but - as I fortunately read just before installing it 
and Stuart Wyatt piped up about in another place - these are known to 
still have a tendency to leave you with unrecoverable blue screens on 
startup. Blinking question mark macs - yes, blue screens of death - no. 
If I wanted that I'd be using a whole other OS, wouldn't I?

[Didn't stop me tinkering with the Visage pref pane and managing to make 
the OSX splash graphic vanish leading me to fear that I was experiencing 
blue screen. Now I like it, seeing the system startup messages in a vast 
sea of nothingness - it just seems so leet ;)]

Hopefully these will mature and be even better than the original 
Kaleidoscope. Given the sheer scope and the consistency of the 
underpinning of interface elements by Aqua, the possibility for as much 
customisation as the user can stand seems eminently doable, seems 
mouthwatering and if done right should avoid the potential "it looks 
great but you've made it unusable" problem of themes (sorry - that 
sentence extremely poorly thought out). If done really right, ancillary 
services such as help systems should be able to reflect the user's theme 
choices creating a truely seamless experience (or am I smoking crack 
here?).

Of course, those familiar with my theme rants already know that what I 
want from a theme manager is not more eye candy but less (even OS7 is 
fussier than I need).

 >>>> I want chrome <<<<

You know what I mean. Chrome all around the window. Not just a title 
bar. So I can grab a window on any side and move it. So I can avoid 
trying to scroll and ending up in some other window/app entirely :(

Perhaps theme managers can deal with this one, much like Kaleidoscope 
enabled the amount of chrome under Classic to be altered. (whoops, 
freudian past tense, guess who's not booting into Classic these days). 
But I am probably misunderstanding how windows get done in OSX.

 >>>> I want desktops <<<<

Not SpaceDock-alike desktops. Real unixen-grade desktops. Nuff said.

 >>>> I want docks <<<<

And fully customisable at that
     http://www.wpi.edu/~phoenix/macosx/dock.html

In some ways the dock could become great.  But it's currently too laggy 
to compete with FruitMenu as for decent nested access to folders/files 
or collections of aliases (of course you can press ctl but with a 
trackpad that's a somewhat cumbersome operation - if I was using a mouse 
or, mmm, a graphics pad maybe I'd feel differently).

 >>>> I don't want open/save dialogs <<<<

Well in an ideal world that would be lovely, making it all happen in the 
finder
    http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06594

[Comments about suckiness of current implementation (apart from the much 
improved, if not perfect, navigation services) are spot on too - the 
worst thing being not being able to type letters and jump to the 
files/folders starting with those letters]

However, in the absence of such a bold step, I'd like to be able to do 
the following (all of which I can under Classic - granted using 
DefaultFolder) in dialog boxes:

* Click on a file and copy its name to the new file
* Rename files
* Delete files (Oh you can, can't you?)
* Open folders in the finder
* Click on a folder in the desktop and change to that folder in the 
dialog (obviously some hotkey would be necessary given the modeless 
nature of the dialogs now)

[Please somebody tell me I'm an idiot and that it is possible to do 
these things in OSX]

 >>>> I want glue <<<<

that allows:
* the recording and playback of any action or task, such as typing key 
commands or text, selecting menus and dialog box options, clicking on 
controls, rearranging and resizing windows, opening applications and 
documents, and prompting the user for input.
* the assigning of any sequence of these actions to keyboard commands, 
toolbars, menus, and scheduled shortcuts.
* the resulting scripts to be fully editable (or written from scratch).
* the resulting toolbars and menus to be fully customisable.

Under Classic OneClick almost achieves this. And OneClick's developers 
may join the fray (XClick?) but equally possibly they may just give up 
as the PopupFolder guys did (although fairs fair, OneClick can't be 
incorporated into OSX whereas Apple simply refused to buy up PopupFolder 
and introduced their own inferior version)

Quickeys can do some of these things, but it's plodding, flaky and is 
not scriptable so you can't get under the hood.

I've heard talk that Route 66 have a RealBasic plugin that promises to 
do these things but their website doesn't mention it so hmmmm.

 >> The contenders

I've come across a couple of apps that show promise and point in the 
right direction:

ShellShell
    http://www.madoverlord.com/projects/shellshell.t
A simple macro writing tool to create aqua interfaces for your favourite 
commands - or rather for people who are scared of the command line or 
can never remember the right commands.

ScriptGUI
    http://www.scriptgui.com/
Let's you run scripts from the finder. Which can be double-clickable. Or 
even better, drag-and-droppable with the dragged and dropped 
files/folders being accepted as <stdin>. Mmmm nice, even if currently it 
still has some rough edges. I like the suthor's combative distribution 
notes too:

"A Note to Apple Computer
I suspect you left this sort of functionality out of MacOS X 
deliberately. Otherwise a whole group of UNIX developers might have 
simply used it to port their command-line tools over to OS X and been 
done with it. But in making this decision, you made OS X less useful to 
people who really understand both MacOS and UNIX. And you lost the 
opportunity to entice them into the MacOS X fold. Please consider 
putting functionality like this back in. I might even negotiate the 
rights to distribute ScriptGUI."

 >> The great white hope

AppleScript Studio looks like it's shaping up to be funky funky 
functional. But a) while it's going to be great for writing apps it's a 
bit too laborious for knocking out everyday run-o-the-mill scripts b) 
Applescript support remains patchy in many (most?) apps and where it 
exists does so in a sometimes truncated form and certainly wildly 
diverging functions and keywords from app to app.

What I dream of most though is a kind of FinderPop style contextual 
thingy (hell, it could even be FinderPopX with whistles) that not only 
executes such scripts but enables users to build the scripts in a pop-up 
fashion (Perhaps accessing AppleScript's dictionaries, thusly overcoming 
the problem of having to learn those diverging dictionaries?) without 
having to manipulate the apps and finder directly. And then group the 
scripts as the user sees fit.

[Actually this kind of approach seems to me a good way of constructing 
complicated searches, presenting the user with only the relevant 
options/prompting for the necessary input, rather than cluttering up the 
interface with masses of input boxes, some of which may or may not 
impact on others.]


 >>>> I don't want a finder <<<<

Hang on you say. What the fuck am I talking about? Especially 
considering what I've just said about wanting open/save dialogs to 
dissappear and magically just be finder operations.

OK, the finder can stay, it's folders/directories I want to see the back 
off replaced by user-configurable attributes/categories - Isn't it 
obvious that the OS should be a database too? The finder becomes a 
collection of aliases to specific files or searches for files that match 
specific attributes. (No Gerstner Scopeware 3d timelines though, well 
not unless you really, really want that). [0]

Actually I also want auto versioning and trashing ;)

Whereas Apple's advance down the path of filename extensions and the 
abandoning of the resource fork is a step in very much the opposite 
direction :(


*cough*


[0] I've wanted this since 1996 when I encountered Apple's .mcf format - 
the whizzygee fly-through mode was pants (and all those Brain/Fractal 
Map style visualisations suck too), but the simple tree-style browsing 
(lists, lists, lists) opened my eyes to how things could and should be 
organised. I even toyed with learning Frontier to attempt to implement 
my own system but (un)fortunately the learning curve at the time was 
just too steep. As well as the fact that the task itself would have 
been, er, still is, beyond my capabilities. And then sometime late last 
year I read that piece about that BeOS guy's conversion to OSX - the 
future has been and gone.