Re: Finder 6.0.1

[madsci@tribeca.ios.com (Eric Dietrich)]

I think that some of those folks who replied to my post are missing my
points.  Many of the things, "enhancements", if you will, are aimed at not
only making the Finder easier to use, but also as a driving force for
hardware.

If new software exists that puts demands on older hardware, then new
hardware is desinged to run the software better.

Here I will reply...

.>� Breaking up the "Shut Down" dialog box.  Putting Quit in the file menu,
.>and Shut Down and Restart in the Special menu.

.There is a SoftDisk GS Finder Extension which adds "Restart" and makes
."Shut Down" behave just like a Mac.  Having "Quit" might confuse the novice
.GS user since the Finder is where the average GS users Shuts Down the system.
.Having a "Quit" implies that you have to quit out of the Finder when you
.are finished using it.  Then are you supposed to shut down the system with
.the Program Launcher?  I personally haven't used the Program Launcher in
.years and wouldn't expect others to use it if they don't have to.

A. Not everyone has a SoftDisk Subscription.
B. Novice User?  Its not like people are buying IIgses off the shelf at
Sears anymore.  I would venture that most IIgs users know what they are
doing.
C. One of the nice things about the IIgs finder is that its possible to
quit it easily.  Quit belongs in the File Menu.

.>� Putting Icon Info in the file menu.

.Icon Info is a function of "file icons," "disk icons" and "other Finder icons."
.This is not appropriate to find under the "File" menu.

Okay.  Icon Info belongs in the Special menu.

.>� Making the "Windows" menu part of the Special menu, as a heirarchic menu.

.When System 6.0.1 was designed, Apple did not like heirarchical menus since
.many users found that it was hard to navigate.  There is plenty of rooms in the
.menu bar for the current bunch of windows and future expansion.  I see no
.reason to hide menu items in a heirarchie when you can single click a menu
.to find what you are looking for.

A. If heirarchical menus are hard to navigate, then System 7.5 must be an
attempt to make mac users lives harder.   Heirarchical menus are my
favorite feature of 7.5.
B. The lo res of the IIgs cuts short the screen space.  If there is ANY
computer that heirarchical menus should be on, the IIgs should be it.

.>� Building in rSound playback. (like FinderSounder)

.Since FinderSounder exists, why does someone have to rewrite the same code?
.Not everybody needs the capability that FinderSounder offers--I for one
.don't use it.  That means that I don't really want to see memory wasted with
.a feature I don't use (which means it should be a "modular" option which
.is exact what FinderSounder is).

A. FinderSounder is swell, but adding INITS always increases the
possibility of conflicts.  rSound playback could be a feature of the Sound
control panel.

.>� Killing zooms. 

.Hmm...this seems to contradict with another idea below.

The zooming rectangles that fly by when you open an item are useless.  As
is the zooming of icons when you clean up.  It may look cool, but it slows
things down, and should be eliminated.  I know about KillDaWhoosh.  Should
we have to load a control panel to REMOVE features?  Does that sound
flawed?

.>� A desktop pattern CDEV.

.SoftDisk GS has also released a "wallpaper" CDEV and is the most stable one
.I found for the GS.  Well worth the $10 or so to order from them.  Once 
.agian, no need to write something new when it isn't broken.

And once again, not everyone gets SDGS.  Integrate it into the System Software.

.>� Making Finder Help (under the Apple Menu) optional. (Does anyone use this?)

.Novice Finder users (and new Finder 6.0.1 users) need it.  Think about this:
.Most of the GS's are in the educational market.  Assume there is a lab with
.GS's powerful enogh where they are all using System 6.0.1 on a hard drive.
.One student is computer savvy learns how to turn off the help menu.  When this
.students goes away and another decides to use it, how will he or she look for
.immediate Finder help when the item is disappeared.  Besides, it is just one
.item under the Apple--there is room for around 20 or so.

Methinks that novice users don't even know its there.  Even from Apple,
people don't expect good online help.  How often have you used Balloon
help, for instance?  And who exactly are these novices, anyways?  If the
machine is in a school, then perhaps the teacher might give them some
pointers.  And doesn't anyone ever read a manual?

.>� Allow a single 5.25" drive to be mounted.

.This is implemented.  Only problem is that some 5.25" drives are too
.noisy to actually make the code work all the time.

This is implemented, sometimes.  What good is that?  Need an option to
only mount the first drive, regardless.  Even to ignore a fully functional
second drive.

>� Move "Preferences" from the Special menu to a CDEV.

.And make the Finder Preferences available in all desktop programs?  Now
.that is really intuitive.  That might make sense if GS/OS was a multi-
.tasking environment.

You set options in control panels.  Thats why there are control panels. 
Where do you go to set something up?  The control panel.

It would be a nice feature if GSOS was multitasking.  So we start small.
And what of The Manager?

.>� Tabbed CDEVs.  Like Icon Info.

.I don't know about this.  The purpose of the tabbed structure is to have
.sreen of information all on one window.  Tabs are lined up on the top like
.folders in a drawer.  What happens when you access a CDEV that the entire
.height fills the entire screen?  I know I have atleast one CDEV that big.
.At one point I had over 25 CDEVS.  That would take several rows of tabs--
.something I find counter-intuitive.

Not a tabbed Control panel DA.  I think the tabbed structure of Icon Info
is a good way to fit more info into a small area, and that more CDEVs
should make use of this structure.  This would allow SMALLER windows.

.>� Allow calculation of folder sizes.
 
.The Finder can do this already.

How?

.>� Zoom box toggles between set size and smallest needed to view all files,
.>not beween set size and full size.

.Didn't you want to kill zooms?  Anyway, this is the first idea that actually
.would be useful. 

Window zooms, icon zooms.  Not the zoom box.

.The only intuition problem I see is what happens when
.you have a windows with only one icon in it.  Lets say the default window
.holds 3 icons.  You click the zoom box and the window _reduces_ to fit only
.one icon.  Then you close the directory and open it again so the changes are
.saved.  You now hit the zoom box.  What happens?  Nothing at all.  This
.is definitely confusing for the novice user since the zoom box is used
.to change the window size.

I have no idea what that means.  

.>� Snap to grid option.

.Another good idea--only really useful if you have an accelerator.

Really?  Why only with an accelerator?  Lest we get spoiled by a
Transwarp.  Some things just take a while.

-Eric