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Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

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Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#51

Post by rahoulb »

jeroenhd wrote: post #42

This reminds me of the "magical" CLSID folder names you can use in Windows to embed special folders in your filesystem. This can be quite useful as some of the hidden functionality includes an overview of many conntrol panel settings usually hidden deep within the directory structure. Plus, applications can register their own special panes if they wish, allowing you to use Windows Explorer as a front-end for your app…

The copy/paste the icon file dates back to pre-OSX MacOS. There were many theming utilities for MacOS that made the process easier and a lot of them came over to OSX/macOS, but they seem to have died out now.

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#52

Post by spongeb00b »

soegaard wrote: post #50
spongeb00b wrote: post #40

For a few years now I've been using a ~/Uploads directory, as in the opposite of ~/Downloads Uploads is where I put any temporary files that I've just made, e.g. an attachment I need to email, or upload into an online service of some kind. Previously my desktop became littered with these files which I absolutely hated. I just wish I could set the sidebar icon to an upwards arrow.

You can use preview to edit the icon files. For each icon size: Use the smart lasso to make a circular selection, then rotate left 2 times.

That works for the folder icon, but not the icon in the Finder sidebar

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#53

Post by jameshart »

jeroenhd wrote: post #42

This reminds me of the "magical" CLSID folder names you can use in Windows to embed special folders in your filesystem. This can be quite useful as some of the hidden functionality includes an overview of many conntrol panel settings usually hidden deep within the directory structure. Plus, applications can register their own special panes if they wish, allowing you to use Windows Explorer as a front-end for your app…

Pasting (or dragging) icons into the folder info window is the UI for it.

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#54

Post by mattl »

threeseed wrote: post #20
ricardobayes wrote: post #17

Developer is a weird string choice though, why not Development or Code. It would be like MS naming its product VS Coder (lol)

It appears to be a relic from the NeXT days. If you look at the video [1] you can see it installing developer tools into the NeXTDeveloper and NeXTLibrary folders. So it's quite possible Apple just did a find/replace and removed the prefix. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMh0WsLZZVY

Earlier versions of Mac OS X would install the development tools in /Developer on the hard drive too.

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#55

Post by mattl »

ttepasse wrote: post #37
alpaca128 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad its first letter collides with Desktop, Downloads and Documents, all of which cannot be removed. One of the little details I miss from Linux. I usually call that directory just "dev", and use lowercase names for all custom directories so zsh completion actually works.

> Too bad its first letter collides with Desktop, Downloads and Documents, all of which cannot be removed. For a "clean" home directory I started to visible hide default folders I have no interest in: chflags hidden ~/Music Still available in the shell or in the Finder with the ⇧⌘. shortcut but out of the way in normal use. Return to normal with the flag nohidden. Although Documents and Desktop seem to be a special c…

Where do you keep your music?

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#56

Post by raldi »

xattt wrote: post #32
rahoulb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be hard to believe now, but there was a time when iTunes was a great piece of software. It used to have two jobs - play your music and manage your music - and it had a good UI for both tasks. iTunes had a "brushed metal" interface - the Apple HIG said brushed metal was for apps that represent "devices", as opposed to standard "Aqua" (or "Platinum" if you go back far enough) for apps which represent "documents"…

Please stop describing something I remember experiencing like yesterday the same way they talk about ox ploughs at a pioneer village museum.

Now, we’re didn’t have Bluetooth back then like you do today, so we used to plug our headphones in through that little hole you see on the side of every computer. I bet you've always wondered what that hole was for! We used to have them on our phones, too, only back then they didn't have wifi and we called them iPods...

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#57

Post by mattl »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #16
schappim wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"quite some time", is an understatement. The Apache HTTP Server was included as part of Mac OS X starting with version 10.0 (Cheetah), which was released on March 24, 2001. Prior to that, users of Mac OS X would have to manually install and configure Apache HTTP Server, if they desired to run a web server on their Mac.

Was there a meaningful "before" for Mac OS X? 10.0 was the first X (unless you mean developer previews and the like).

Mac OS X server had 1.0, 1.1 and 1.23 released before 10.0 was released, based on Rhapsody.

Apache was one of the installable options alongside Emacs and WebObjects.

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#58

Post by raldi »

mattl wrote: post #55
ttepasse wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Too bad its first letter collides with Desktop, Downloads and Documents, all of which cannot be removed. For a "clean" home directory I started to visible hide default folders I have no interest in: chflags hidden ~/Music Still available in the shell or in the Finder with the ⇧⌘. shortcut but out of the way in normal use. Return to normal with the flag nohidden. Although Documents and Desktop seem to be a special c…

Where do you keep your music?

Who keeps music?

Re: Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS

#60

Post by goosedragons »

reaperducer wrote: post #45
Aeolun wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess a mac only application for disk burning becomes a bit pointless when there’s no macs with disc drives any more.

there’s no macs with disc drives any more The drives still exist. They're just optional now. Like bucket seats. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-super... Best optical drive I own. When nothing else will read a crusty disc, the SuperDrive always does.

Fun fact. That's the oldest product they still sell as it was introduced with the original MacBook Air in 2008. They've done literally nothing to it and it sill comes with a USB A cable despite most of their computers not having one at all. It also is pretty bad value these days when a Blu-ray writer costs about the same.
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