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Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

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Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#221

Post by klodolph »

eviks wrote: post #217
klodolph wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you like about the other file managers over the Finder? Finder has column view and quicklook. If there’s something that I’m missing out on from, say, Explorer or Thunar or whatever, I’d love to hear it. Whenever I have to sort through a lot of files on Linux or Windows, I get a better experience by exporting a SMB share and sorting on a Mac. The only file managers that I’ve used that felt competitive with the…

Ability to open a file on Enter, for starters! But also I can use JK to navigate down/up instead of moving my hand of their resting positions to the cursor. And NM you jump faster by 5 files. And the ability to change shortcuts easily And the ability to use double tap C to copy file name, and tap C then tap F to copy full file path. And turn column view into a flat list of all files at or below the current dir for ea…

To be honest, a lot of these seem to have the shape, “I want to be able to press button A to do action X,” but for the Finder, you have to press button B instead. I was hoping for something a little more interesting.

Things like, “In a Real Pro file manager, you can double-tap C to copy a filename, but in Finder, you have to press command-C.” Do you see why I’m a little disappointed by this list?

I’m interested to hear what file manager you’re using because it sounds like you’d hate Explorer, Nautilus, and Thunar too.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#222

Post by GiorgioG »

ShinyLeftPad wrote: post #164
GiorgioG wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s complaining…because he sells a solution to this problem. I hated Finder when I switched to Mac back in 2007. So much so I bought PathFinder. One thing that pissed me off and still does, is when I copy over a folder with the same name, it doesn’t merge the contents, it deletes everything in the existing folder. That’s not what I expected as a Windows user and it still seems like the wrong behavior almost 20 years…

This is not true, it asks to merge or replace (though merge is not always available). It's like that for years already.

It wasn't in 2007.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#223

Post by whimbyte »

I made my own file manager to not have to use Finder so much. It's called WhimFiles and here's the tagline for it: "Narrow any folder by type, date, and size all at once. Jump anywhere with fuzzy folder search, hover to preview without opening, and browse two folders side by side. No more digging through endless Finder windows."

https://whimfiles.com

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#224

Post by ShinyLeftPad »

GiorgioG wrote: post #222
ShinyLeftPad wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true, it asks to merge or replace (though merge is not always available). It's like that for years already.

It wasn't in 2007.

You wrote "still does", you haven't upgraded since 2007?

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#225

Post by ShinyLeftPad »

Someone wrote: post #51
zitterbewegung wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do option while moving the file it merges both directories but even I didn't know this until I googled it.

If you copy-paste a folder using the keyboard, a dialog pops up asking you whether to merge the contents. Totally inconsistent with drag-and—drop, but useful to know.

It asks that when dragging too.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#226

Post by eviks »

klodolph wrote: post #221
eviks wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ability to open a file on Enter, for starters! But also I can use JK to navigate down/up instead of moving my hand of their resting positions to the cursor. And NM you jump faster by 5 files. And the ability to change shortcuts easily And the ability to use double tap C to copy file name, and tap C then tap F to copy full file path. And turn column view into a flat list of all files at or below the current dir for ea…

To be honest, a lot of these seem to have the shape, “I want to be able to press button A to do action X,” but for the Finder, you have to press button B instead. I was hoping for something a little more interesting. Things like, “In a Real Pro file manager, you can double-tap C to copy a filename, but in Finder, you have to press command-C.” Do you see why I’m a little disappointed by this list? I’m interested to he…

Don't close your mind to new knowledge and it might just get interested!

> but in Finder, you have to press command-C.” Do you see why I’m a little disappointed by this list?

Sure I do, you're doing the lazy cut. The original quote was:

> double tap C to copy file name, and tap C then tap F to copy full file path.

And of course you can't do that in Finder, that's just nonsense. Now also add a few more actions: copy file name without the extension, copy the extension, copy full path quoted for pasting in your terminal - and

A. You've run out of keys and modifiers, and definitely out of memory to remember which action does what

B. C. D. It's actually not trivial to extend Finder in this way, and of course you can't easily change the keybinds, and of course you can't group those keybinds in a conveniently located submenu, and of course you can't assigne custom key modifiers to those menus for ease of navigation..

Also pray do tell which command-C you need to press to achieve this:

> (cycle) rename file full name/name/extension

There are also a few non-keybinding-related things in the list which you've conveniently ignored

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#227

Post by klodolph »

eviks wrote: post #226
klodolph wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, a lot of these seem to have the shape, “I want to be able to press button A to do action X,” but for the Finder, you have to press button B instead. I was hoping for something a little more interesting. Things like, “In a Real Pro file manager, you can double-tap C to copy a filename, but in Finder, you have to press command-C.” Do you see why I’m a little disappointed by this list? I’m interested to he…

Don't close your mind to new knowledge and it might just get interested! > but in Finder, you have to press command-C.” Do you see why I’m a little disappointed by this list? Sure I do, you're doing the lazy cut. The original quote was: > double tap C to copy file name, and tap C then tap F to copy full file path. And of course you can't do that in Finder, that's just nonsense. Now also add a few more actions: copy f…

> Don't close your mind to new knowledge and it might just get interested!

Please be respectful in these conversations—I’m interested in hearing more about this, but the comments you’ve been making are emotionally charged and insulting.

I’m interested to hear what file manager you’re using because it sounds like you’d hate Explorer, Nautilus, and Thunar too. Sorry for repeating the question—but I’m not going to accuse you of “conveniently ignoring” the question. Accusing someone of conveniently ignoring a question is, I don’t know, at best just rude. Don’t do that.

I know that there are things that Finder is not good at, that’s fine by me. What baffles me is the comparison with Windows Explorer, and that’s why I responded, and that’s the context for my comments. If you have a comparison with a specific other file manager in mind I’d like to hear it. For my use cases, I am often sorting through large quantities of media files, so I value things like column view and Quicklook.

(Copy without extension is enter, command-C. Full path 95% of the time, I am pasting into the Terminal, and so I drag it in, and the terminal automatically escapes it.)

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