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Projects for Old OS X

jonathanalland.com

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Re: Projects for Old OS X

#11

Post by wtallis »

behnamoh wrote: post #8

macOS keyboard shortcuts situation is weird. it shines where Windows is lacking, and falls behind where Windows is ahead. Example: I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens". Another example: on Windows I can press Alt and see a letter underlined in the menu to let me know what keyboard shortcut activates it, but on ma…

> I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens".

You may be looking for the "Keyboard navigation" preference that lets you tab between controls like on Windows.

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#12

Post by saagarjha »

behnamoh wrote: post #8

macOS keyboard shortcuts situation is weird. it shines where Windows is lacking, and falls behind where Windows is ahead. Example: I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens". Another example: on Windows I can press Alt and see a letter underlined in the menu to let me know what keyboard shortcut activates it, but on ma…

installer(8)?

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#13

Post by CalRobert »

behnamoh wrote: post #8

macOS keyboard shortcuts situation is weird. it shines where Windows is lacking, and falls behind where Windows is ahead. Example: I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens". Another example: on Windows I can press Alt and see a letter underlined in the menu to let me know what keyboard shortcut activates it, but on ma…

For peak usability, Windows 3.1 kept the mnemonics underlined _all the time_. It's been downhill since then. Though I'm looking at the menu bar on Firefox on Ubuntu right now and at least the mnemonics are underlined now as I type, even without hitting "alt".

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#14

Post by egypturnash »

behnamoh wrote: post #8

macOS keyboard shortcuts situation is weird. it shines where Windows is lacking, and falls behind where Windows is ahead. Example: I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens". Another example: on Windows I can press Alt and see a letter underlined in the menu to let me know what keyboard shortcut activates it, but on ma…

on Windows I can press Alt and see a letter underlined in the menu to let me know what keyboard shortcut activates it

Have you not noticed that every MacOS menu item that has a keyboard shortcut has the entire shortcut listed on the right side of the menu? This goes back all the way to System 1 in 1984: https://web.archive.org/web/20140512112637/http://www3.nd.ed...

It's somewhat more obvious when you're using a keyboard that actually has all the same symbols on the meta keys; Apple likes to drop those sometimes and it's really not helpful for someone who hasn't learnt the cryptic glyphs. The ancient Magic Keyboard on my desk only sports a ⌘ on the Command key, and lacks ⇧ on the shifts, ^ on control, and ⌥ on the alts.

You can even navigate the menus entirely by keyboard, if you turn on "Full Keyboard Access" in the Accessibility prefs. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/navigate-your-mac-u...

but if I want to "show package contents" of an app in the Applications, I definitely need a mouse!

With Full Keyboard Access on you can hit tab-m to bring up an app's right-click menu and navigate to it. FKA has a lot of tab-something shortcuts.

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#15

Post by ForOldHack »

Reason077 wrote: post #6

I wish Apple would bring back the Dashboard for modern macOS versions, using the modern widget technology. I like the modern widgets but it's awkward that you can only use them on the desktop or notification centre. It's been gone for years now, but I still really miss Dashboard! What I'd like is: * Dashboard is a special desktop that appears to the left of the main desktop * Can be accessed with a single F-key press…

It was an absolutely brilliant idea, which they tossed... But .. nothing prevents someone from retro programming it or a better one.

Apple has left behind some of the most brilliant UX/UI ideas of the century...

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#17

Post by boxed »

wtallis wrote: post #11
behnamoh wrote: post #8

macOS keyboard shortcuts situation is weird. it shines where Windows is lacking, and falls behind where Windows is ahead. Example: I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens". Another example: on Windows I can press Alt and see a letter underlined in the menu to let me know what keyboard shortcut activates it, but on ma…

> I still don't know how to install an app (*.pkg) just using keyboard on macOS. On Windows, it's simply "press tab or alt and see what happens". You may be looking for the "Keyboard navigation" preference that lets you tab between controls like on Windows.

I believe they're talking about menu access.

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#18

Post by trinix912 »

Reason077 wrote: post #6

I wish Apple would bring back the Dashboard for modern macOS versions, using the modern widget technology. I like the modern widgets but it's awkward that you can only use them on the desktop or notification centre. It's been gone for years now, but I still really miss Dashboard! What I'd like is: * Dashboard is a special desktop that appears to the left of the main desktop * Can be accessed with a single F-key press…

There was also an overlay option to see Dash atop of other apps, which I liked more than the extra desktop. You could pop up a unit converter without “leaving” the current program/desktop.

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#19

Post by trinix912 »

caseyy wrote: post #5

We've accumulated much bloat in macOS since "big cat" days... and what seems like only 10% more OS utilities/functionality. Interesting to think about it in retrospect.

I still find it baffling how huge (in disk space) a clean install is nowadays, even before Apple Silicon universal binaries. I remember thinking years ago how slim an OS X system was compared to C:\Windows, but in the recent years they’re both huge. It’s not like we got much less functionality back then either.

Re: Projects for Old OS X

#20

Post by drooopy »

trinix912 wrote: post #19
caseyy wrote: post #5

We've accumulated much bloat in macOS since "big cat" days... and what seems like only 10% more OS utilities/functionality. Interesting to think about it in retrospect.

I still find it baffling how huge (in disk space) a clean install is nowadays, even before Apple Silicon universal binaries. I remember thinking years ago how slim an OS X system was compared to C:\Windows, but in the recent years they’re both huge. It’s not like we got much less functionality back then either.

Tiger 10.4 was such a breath of fresh air for someone like me, coming from Windows XP and some variety of Linux with Gnome 2.x back in 2005.

Twenty years later, I find Windows 11 and MacOS 15 to be in such a bad state, that I would rather use XP and Gnome 2 over them.

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