Those problems "still exist in 2019". Not in 2022. You're running macOS Catalina. (Actually, they don't "still exist in 2019" either).
Yes, files auto-arrange. cmd+J, Sort by: Name, Use as defaults.
Informational redundancy? You went out of your way to activate Show All Tabs which shows the Finder tab bar even with just one tab open, and Show Path Bar which is behaving as expected. Somehow merging the window title & path bar would prevent dragging the window around easily, since the path bar gives you proxy icons you can drag around. And seeing the same folder name in the title bar and the sidebar is good UX. Windows 11 File Explorer has the exact same amount of "repetition", except for tabs which it doesn't support.
Cut and paste is bad for file managers since it requires the file to "disappears" until you paste it. Copy a piece of text off a web page and you've got data loss. And "option" now shows "Copies as Pathname", which is more useful on a UNIX OS than "Move" when you can just drag and drop.
"Open Finder twice" is expected behavior. When an app is open but with no open windows, opening the app again opens a window. This reduces user confusion since it works the exact same as Windows, and is very useful for 3rd party menu-bar-only utilities where you can open their main window (often the settings window) with a half-second Spotlight search.
"Enter" is the most natural choice for renaming since it's an extremely common operation (cmd+R would require 2 key presses) and F2 is used for brightness. Note that modern Windows boxes also put brightness controls on F2, so you need to twist your hand awkwardly to press fn+F2 to rename anything.
The Green button isn't called maximize for a reason. It's meant to show the full document and no more, and is quite useful for Amethyst-without-Amethyst. Hide the "Format and style" sidebar in Pages, and you end up with a huge border around your document. Double tap empty space in the toolbar and the window shrinks to fit the document. Open a Finder folder with 2 lines of files and double tap, the window shrinks to being tall enough to only show those lines, no more. That's useful and works as expected.
Apple's documentation doesn't say Touch ID doesn't put the Mac to sleep. It says it doesn't do so if you press it 1.5 seconds. It does it immediately.
> Cut and paste is bad for file managers since it requires the file to "disappears" until you paste it. Copy a piece of text off a web page and you've got data loss.
What? Is this what happens in MacOS? Because it's definitely not happening in Windows, the cut file does not disappear, it stays until pasted. I can't even fathom that this scenario would be real in any modern OS. File object and text should be handled as separate class of entities and this situation should not occur even theoretically.
> "Enter" is the most natural choice for renaming since it's an extremely common operation (cmd+R would require 2 key presses) and F2 is used for brightness.
??? How often do you rename files vs how often you open them? What is your line of work where file renaming is "extremely common"?
> Note that modern Windows boxes also put brightness controls on F2, so you need to twist your hand awkwardly to press fn+F2 to rename anything.
No, just no. Powerusers (that I know) simply reverse that behaviour to have F-keys behave as original F-keys, the rest just select Rename from context menu.
> What? Is this what happens in MacOS? Because it's definitely not happening in Windows, the cut file does not disappear, it stays until pasted. I can't even fathom that this scenario would be real in any modern OS. File object and text should be handled as separate class of entities and this situation should not occur even theoretically.
Isn't that just move? With a small tweak that involves also deleting the original when moving across drives, rather than keeping it? The author framed cut and paste as completely different from this: "It’s not cut and paste. macOS has copy and disregard-copy-actually-move-instead"
Interesting anyhow. I don't know if Linux has cut-and-paste, but I've used it and Mac for years and never felt a need for this.
And yes, I do rename things frequently, it's a basic filesystem operation.
I think this is a logical approach to pasting. In Windows, for example, if you start by cutting the file, then navigate to where you want to paste it to, and change your mind, deciding you actually want a copy but to keep the original where it is, then you have to start the operation again from the beginning.
With macOS, you can decide whether to `mv` or `cp` just by pressing a modifier in the destination directory.
You rename more than you open files and folders? Not sure why, but I find this concept hilarious.
As someone that uses Windows, Linux (many flavors), and am now using a Mac as my primary daily due to M1 superiority, cut and paste is uniform in how it operates everywhere except mac.
Lots of senseless operations that seem to me amount to being different for the hell of it, because users think they are better and refuse to change. Very basic processes, like manually inputting file paths in Finder, turn into an annoying exercise of remembering instead of intuitive derivation. Everything in a modern OS UX in this day & age should have fundamental design in intuition without muscle memory, as opposed to traditional comforts.
MacOS largely fails in this regard, even though I am highly proficient with it now and greatly appreciate the fact that almost everything “just works”.
I like to so an exercise with software where I imagine I am a little kid or an animal trying to accomplish a task without any prior knowledge. What would be my steps? I think that users should be able to use physical intuition to operate tech, but maybe I am a minority.
It is. From your description I understood that it's the problem with first selecting and cutting a file and then placing it elsewhere. Now I'm not sure what the author is referring to. Have to try it on my Mac later on.
I still think that window management in Macos is not as good as in Windows, plus I still haven't figured out how to select text between current cursor location and the beginning/end of a document. Shift–Command–Dn/Up doesn't work for me. Apple has made some good decisions along the way but getting rid of extra keys (Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Del) from their laptops is not one of them. Juggling ctrl-alt-cmd-fn combos is just too much.
Those problems "still exist in 2019". Not in 2022. You're running macOS Catalina. (Actually, they don't "still exist in 2019" either).
Yes, files auto-arrange. cmd+J, Sort by: Name, Use as defaults.
Informational redundancy? You went out of your way to activate Show All Tabs which shows the Finder tab bar even with just one tab open, and Show Path Bar which is behaving as expected. Somehow merging the window title & path bar would prevent dragging the window around easily, since the path bar gives you proxy icons you can drag around. And seeing the same folder name in the title bar and the sidebar is good UX. Windows 11 File Explorer has the exact same amount of "repetition", except for tabs which it doesn't support.
Cut and paste is bad for file managers since it requires the file to "disappears" until you paste it. Copy a piece of text off a web page and you've got data loss. And "option" now shows "Copies as Pathname", which is more useful on a UNIX OS than "Move" when you can just drag and drop.
"Open Finder twice" is expected behavior. When an app is open but with no open windows, opening the app again opens a window. This reduces user confusion since it works the exact same as Windows, and is very useful for 3rd party menu-bar-only utilities where you can open their main window (often the settings window) with a half-second Spotlight search.
"Enter" is the most natural choice for renaming since it's an extremely common operation (cmd+R would require 2 key presses) and F2 is used for brightness. Note that modern Windows boxes also put brightness controls on F2, so you need to twist your hand awkwardly to press fn+F2 to rename anything.
The Green button isn't called maximize for a reason. It's meant to show the full document and no more, and is quite useful for Amethyst-without-Amethyst. Hide the "Format and style" sidebar in Pages, and you end up with a huge border around your document. Double tap empty space in the toolbar and the window shrinks to fit the document. Open a Finder folder with 2 lines of files and double tap, the window shrinks to being tall enough to only show those lines, no more. That's useful and works as expected.
Apple's documentation doesn't say Touch ID doesn't put the Mac to sleep. It says it doesn't do so if you press it 1.5 seconds. It does it immediately.