Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#41

Post by Stratoscope » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 5:54 PM UTC

jdub wrote: post #11

To add to the comments about file listings not refreshing, note that the desktop is just a fancy-looking Explorer file listing widget ("control" in Windows-speak).

It's also worth noting that the standard File Open and File Save dialogs are full-fledged File Explorer windows too.

I make use of this all the time. For example, I often want to open the same file in two different editors. So in the editor where I have the file already open, I do a Save As to get into the dialog, then simply drag the file directly from that dialog into the other editor, and close the dialog without saving.

Alt+D also works the same in these dialogs as an Explorer window, so a quick way to copy the current file's directory to the clipboard is to do a Save As, Alt+D, Ctrl+C, Esc.

Or to open a standalone File Explorer window somewhere in my current project: Save As, right-click the folder in the Save As dialog, and Open in New Window.

All kinds of nice shortcuts like this are available once you realize that the File dialogs are Explorer windows.

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#42

Post by juliangregorian » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 6:42 PM UTC

Retra wrote: post #36

userbinator wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting contrast of design philosophy: Mac - "It just works. We refuse to believe that it doesn't." Windows - "It mostly works, but when it doesn't, press this button."

For a company so self-infatuated with design, they sure did a great job making Finder a frustrating and near-useless piece of software.

One would be either infatuated with design or infatuated by the self, "self-infatuated with design" does not make sense.

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#43

Post by Kluny » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 6:43 PM UTC

I use it when I do a Subversion update. TortoiseSVN puts a red icon on non-current folders and a green icon on up-to-date folders. Sometimes the icon doesn't change color when you update though, so you have to refresh.

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#44

Post by therein » Sun, Jul 05, 2015, 8:25 PM UTC

arthulia wrote: post #40

TeMPOraL wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and here I always thought it just doesn't rename the file at all. NTFS is case-sensitive but Explorer is only case-preserving, so I thought it was just assuming I typed in the same name. When I wanted to change the case of a file name, I always renamed the file first to something else, eg. "Foo.txt" => "bar.txt" => "foo.txt". Thanks for the information :).

NTFS is case aware, but not really case sensitive.

How does that work? Did they implement case sensitivity and then decided to not use it?

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#45

Post by rys » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 12:33 AM UTC

therein wrote: post #44

arthulia wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NTFS is case aware, but not really case sensitive.

How does that work? Did they implement case sensitivity and then decided to not use it?

It's more the case that NTFS is case-sensitive, but the Win32 APIs aren't.

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#46

Post by chrisBob » Mon, Jul 06, 2015, 12:26 PM UTC

EvilBanshee wrote: post #16

To keep the non-technophiles occupied while they wait for their external device to be detected, and to soothe them by giving them something to do (repeatedly) to "speed up" their ageing computer.

You are getting a lot of down votes, but the truth is that this behavior is very common in some cultures, and not all of HN may have seen it before.

When I get impatient I just swirl the mouse in a small counter-clockwise circle, but I have seen others do the rapid right click, refresh sequence. It was mostly Asian computer users[0], and some of them had practiced it enough that they would do this 3-4 times per second while waiting for the computer to react.

[0] I first noticed this in Iraq, but the Chinese students at school do the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: What was the Windows “refresh” button for?

#47

Post by Retra » Tue, Jul 07, 2015, 2:24 PM UTC

juliangregorian wrote: post #42

Retra wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a company so self-infatuated with design, they sure did a great job making Finder a frustrating and near-useless piece of software.

One would be either infatuated with design or infatuated by the self, "self-infatuated with design" does not make sense.

"Infatuated with the image of the self as a designer" is what I meant. Self-infatuation with a design component.