Re: Finder 6.0.1

[geoff@seeker.the-hermes.net (Geoff Weiss)]

Eric Dietrich <madsci@tribeca.ios.com> wrote:

(the original poster somehow managed to put null characters on every line.
If there is a problem with this reply, I'll re-edit this and resend it)

>� 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.

>� 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.

>� 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.

>� Making the "Disk" menu part of the Special menu, as above.

same argument as above,

>� 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).

>� Building in SynthLab SEQ playback. (like SynthInit)

same argument as above

>� Killing zooms. 

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

>� 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.

>� 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.

>� 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.
>
>� 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.

>� 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.

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

>� Allow for thinner scroll bars. (Might be harder to use them, but you
>could see more).

This is a function of QuickDraw II, not the Finder.  The problem is the 
640 x 200 resolution of the screen.  The forthcoming Quick Draw patch
to work with the Second Sight card should fix this limitation.

There are a couple of programs out there that rely on the width of the
scrollbars to operate properly.  One of these programs is Teach.

>� 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.  This of course would have to be a preferenc option.
Intuitively, the zoom box is used for taking the current window size and 
making it fit the entire screen.  That means that this should be the
default option.  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.

>� Snap to grid option.

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

>If anyone has any thoughts on this, please reply. Finder 6.0.1 is very
>impressive.  Finder 6.0.2 could be even better.  

I would rather see the bugs fixed in Finder 6.0.1 before any new features
are added.

Geoff
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