Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your projects link is 404. Also no RSS?
Oh, thanks for the reminder: I cleared out some old stuff and forgot to redirect. Fixed. Also: RSS where?
For the blog i.e. writing.markchristian.org
Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
101–110 of 158 posts
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#102drag, command-tab to switch apps, drop on the relevant window.
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. This is not about copy/paste at all. Windows and Mac lets you drag objects and drop them on target. This works in normal scenario where the object you are trying to drag and the target are easy to identify. It gets very difficult if your target is hard to reach. This app has a brilliant new UI which makes those drag-n-drop operations super easy. Please see the demo video to understand the app: http://www.youtub…
Sorry, what I meant to say isn't this simply equivalent to copy and paste? In windows at least: http://superuser.com/a/252104 I can think of only a few scenarios where dropping is the only option and pasting isn't available - but clearly those scenarios were real pain points for people!
This is about extending the existing graphical UI design. Direct manipulation of graphical elements is preferred on a Mac. Think about touch on iOS devices to get a sense of how important direct manipulation is to Apple. (And how the iPhone did not have copy/paste at all when it first shipped.)
So, yes, they are equivalent (in certain situations, drag and drop can be a move or whatever else is appropriate). But copy/paste is the alternative. So is cp at a Terminal command line.
See also: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserE...
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#104Bought it. Very good first impressions.
Nice work and congrats on the Daring Fireball mention.
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#105Were you inspired by the Shelf from NeXTSTEP?
Not directly -- I never had the pleasure of using NeXTSTEP. To be honest, this idea has been in my head for a long time, just waiting for me to come up with a proper interaction modality. I'm my own app's #1 user. :)
"I'm my own app's #1 user."
That is always a good sign.
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#106Looks like a cool utility. I will probably be well received by those who rely on dragging and dropping. I personally never drag-and-drop unless it is the only way to get something done. Copy and Paste via the keyboard is faster and far easier to use. It also gives you all the time you need to navigate wherever you need to go. Further to that, because I switch between platforms multiple times per day I just can't deal…
The problem with keyboard or menu cut/copy/paste (hereafter c/c/p) is that it’s a mode (or at least a sort of quasi-mode), and modes are a fundamentally inhumane user interface approach that shift cognitive burden from computers to humans. The traditional c/c/p includes no visual feedback whatsoever, is an extremely overloaded concept (many types of objects can be copied, the result of pasting depends on context and there’s no way to tell precisely what will happen from past experience with other applications, sometimes a copy instruction only places a link to the content (for performance reasons) so that closing a document or application alters the paste behavior, c/c/p between applications is often brittle, especially when dealing with rich text), and is very limited and inflexible (no way or bad ways (depending on the implementation) to copy two things and then paste them back, copying another thing destroys the user intent of the previous copy operation and can’t be undone, no visual/spatial context is provided for the operation, etc. etc.).
C/c/p is better than what came before it (it was invented at PARC in the early 1970s, and the alternative was much more mode-ful, something like vim), but is still too unfriendly for novices and too limited for experienced users. Unfortunately, it is so ubiquitous that it has forced all users to learn it, forced all software to implement it, and crowded out alternative approaches, even in contexts like file managers where the concept doesn’t really make sense. The best we can typically hope for is extensions of the typical c/c/p interaction which work like other implementations in the simple case but have some extra functionality for experienced users. These are usually entirely undiscoverable, and still share most of the problems of the traditional c/c/p.
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#107I've spent the last four + years dragging stuff to that tiny little space in the bottom left of of my screen near the dock, switching to the app I'm interested in (sometimes after failing for 20-30 seconds of trying to get focus onto the app while holding onto my mouse button and hoping the "springboard" functionality of the OS gets to correct window) - and then "show desktop" - hope that I can find the stuff I just dragged to my desktop in what is usually an over cluttered screen, and then dragging it to the app that show (hopefully) be easy to get back into focus.
I probably do this three-four times a day - and it's one of the few miserable parts of my OS X existence.
The ROI for this app will be measured for me in about one day of frustration that I no longer have to deal with - the "shake to get clipboard" is brilliant. Just the toolbar drop alone would have been sufficient to make me happy.
Thank you so much - I don't recall ever being so pleased with something new. So worth $5. Brilliant.
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#108Looks like a cool utility. I will probably be well received by those who rely on dragging and dropping. I personally never drag-and-drop unless it is the only way to get something done. Copy and Paste via the keyboard is faster and far easier to use. It also gives you all the time you need to navigate wherever you need to go. Further to that, because I switch between platforms multiple times per day I just can't deal…
The problem with keyboard or menu cut/copy/paste (hereafter c/c/p) is that it’s a mode (or at least a sort of quasi-mode), and modes are a fundamentally inhumane user interface approach that shift cognitive burden from computers to humans. The traditional c/c/p includes no visual feedback whatsoever, is an extremely overloaded concept (many types of objects can be copied, the result of pasting depends on context and…
I'm not sure I follow where you're coming from. The biggest thing that I don't understand is what the alternative to c/c/p is. I feel like drag and drop is an even fuzzier metaphor than c/c/p. At best it has most of the issues you've outlined with c/c/p.
But, I'm an Emacs user, so c/c/p is instinctual. If everyone grew up using Emacs people would probably be writing papers about how chaining keystrokes is some sort of deeply evolved human skill.
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#109Great concept Already bought :)
Re: Show HN: my Mac app just got fireballed
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with keyboard or menu cut/copy/paste (hereafter c/c/p) is that it’s a mode (or at least a sort of quasi-mode), and modes are a fundamentally inhumane user interface approach that shift cognitive burden from computers to humans. The traditional c/c/p includes no visual feedback whatsoever, is an extremely overloaded concept (many types of objects can be copied, the result of pasting depends on context and…
I'm not sure I follow where you're coming from. The biggest thing that I don't understand is what the alternative to c/c/p is. I feel like drag and drop is an even fuzzier metaphor than c/c/p. At best it has most of the issues you've outlined with c/c/p. But, I'm an Emacs user, so c/c/p is instinctual. If everyone grew up using Emacs people would probably be writing papers about how chaining keystrokes is some sort o…
There are many possible alternatives to c/c/p in “idea space”, and the little details matter. A better system, though, would have some of these properties: it would persistently store cut/copied content in some kind of list, at least content of manageable size; it would have some way to see the clipboard visually/spatially; it would interact with drag/drop; it would give some visual indication that there was currently copied content, and perhaps the type as well; it would allow a user to interact with the history of cut/copied items in a more flexible way both from keyboard and mouse; it would allow easy conversion of copied chunks into “documents”/“files”/“pages” in their own right.
Many of the problems here intersect with the problems of our current files + hierarchical filesystem + semi-spatial file browser + open/save dialog system for dealing with “content” in general. Ideally, a generally more intuitive and flexible basis for these problems would be built, and the replacement for c/c/p would integrate with these other tools. That’s sort of wishful thinking though. (Well, the idea of replacing c/c/p is also probably wishful thinking. Systemically different approaches like the Canon Cat word processor are all pretty much dead by now.)