91–98 of 98 posts
Xcode doesn't seem to play along with Swift either, the whole integration is quite buggy yet.
I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…
There's nothing wrong with yearly release cycles, Apple's problem seems to be that they've tied their OS to the hardware cycle . It doesn't really matter if the OS is completely done, or still has a fair number of bugs. It MUST release at the same time as the new phone. Combined with this is the fact that the apps are bundled with the OS. While certain enhancements definitely need operating system support, there's no…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mac OS X: The 2000-2003 period included three full releases (not counting 10.0, since that was the culmination of several years of work), and didn't have quality problems. The 2003-2011 period had four releases. So I don't see an obvious lesson that one year is sustainable. iOS: 2007-2011 four updates at one year intervals before the decline in quality that lots of people perceive starting with iOS6. Again, hard to s…
> when I read Siracusa's review Are you referring to his Yosemite review? Is it out yet?
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I've tried to "go mac" about 3 times now, at quite a bit of expense, and the horrible and endless well of failure that is Finder continues to rebuff me. Even as Explorer continues to change and ends up with some weird corners, it's such a much better and more efficient file manager. I'll find myself going weeks, enjoying my rMBP, then I'll need to do some heavy duty file management and end up in Finder-hell and immed…
I always read about people hating Finder, and I never understand why. There are some things that I can't live without: being able to drag a file or folder into a file open/save dialog (try doing this in Windows! HOHO), and the column view. It really makes file management a breeze, and I rarely drop into the Terminal, unless I'm doing some heavy-duty renaming, or stuff like that. Could you elaborate on the Finder prob…
1 - unbelievably poor context presentation, e.g. if I paste? where in the file system will something end up? Who knows? Where am I in the filesystem? I can guess! Is it correct? not usually. How about let's play the game of which kind of file is this? Because filenames usually end up with a '...' somewhere in them and I have to fiddle with Finder every single time to get it wide enough to stop truncating filenames so I can figure out which file is "P1250416.JPG" vs "P1250417.JPG". Folders mix in with filenames when sorted so navigating up and down the tree takes forever (and is harder to do keyboarding). And on and on and on.
2 - completely nonstandard keyboarding and navigation, e.g. ENTER to rename, cmd+o or cmd+down to open a file? really? In which way are either of those possible intuitive? It appears Finder is trying to follow some impossibly ancient keyboard shortcut system that was probably put in place 30 years ago and doesn't make any sense at all.
Here's a typical use-case for me. I just shot about 3,000 photos and I want to do a quick pass on the photos and delete bad photos and move photos of a certain kind (photos with a certain subject) into another folder. In explorer it's a matter of hitting "enter" then "right" until I see one I don't like then hitting "delete" to remove it then continuing with "right" until I find more to delete or finish the bunch. Moving ones with a specific subject involves me ctrl+mouswheel until the thumbnails are as big as possible so I can see the subjects, then ctrl+lmb on all the ones I want to move then ctrl+x, move into the folder, ctrl+v (and now they're all sorted and not scattered all over the place like in Finder and I moved them using the completely system consistent cut-paste keyboard hotkeys) and alt+left to go back (just like a browser). Other niceties like being able to maximize and then restore back to the default window size with a couple mouseclicks are also smoother.
In Finder all of this becomes work instead of a few minutes of repetitive keypushing. I can almost do the entire workflow without a mouse in Explorer, and where I have to mouse it kind of makes sense (picking specific items from a group) over a keyboard. But in Finder, just to get started, I have to buy and install a couple pieces of software.
Sure most of these things can be "fixed". If I install this or that extension, and customize finder in this or that way and remap such and such keyboard hotkey I can kind of end up with a sane workflow and filenames I can actually see. But I shouldn't have to fix shipping software. Everytime I open Finder I'm asking myself if anybody at Apple actually uses it.
Take a look on the internet for people complaining about Finder and most of the complaints are more or less along the same lines. The complaints are consistent and have been going on for years. Solutions have been hacks since forever as well and usually involve installing $100 of replacements, addons or fixes.
What's amazing to me is that these problems don't exist in any other GUI file manager I've ever used, from the Amiga to my TI calculators. Finder is just rubbish.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've tried to "go mac" about 3 times now, at quite a bit of expense, and the horrible and endless well of failure that is Finder continues to rebuff me. Even as Explorer continues to change and ends up with some weird corners, it's such a much better and more efficient file manager. I'll find myself going weeks, enjoying my rMBP, then I'll need to do some heavy duty file management and end up in Finder-hell and immed…
Spotlight is good. Really good. I can go weeks without acknowledging the existence of a filesystem. I do "file management" literally never. Just throw everything in my Dropbox folder and Command-Space to find it when I want it back. I see my current project's tree in Sublime Text all the time, but I rarely if ever use Finder proper.
I'd just like to point out that this is likely not to get better with this (arbitrary) decision to release a new OS every year. It used to be that we'd have a new release roughly every 2 years (from 2003 - 2011). This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with, and 2) there were then 2 years to iron out the bugs. You'd get the new OS, there were some understandable kinks, but…
>This meant: 1. it was in development for 2 years and thus probably stabler to begin with No. Shorter release cycles don't imply loss of quality. I claim the opposite in fact. Rolling releases are much better for quality. You're releasing smaller more focused features and battle-testing them in the field. >There is no stabilization phase. There are always stabilization phases. Not every major release will be an overh…
The first rule of Apple software quality is that you don't talk about Apple software quality. It's like complaining about Rolex watches not being accurate. Typical error on a Rolex is a minute or two a month, sometimes worse. Rolex doesn't even provide chronometer certification for their watches. As their CEO says, "We are not in the watch business. We are in the luxury business". That's the market Apple is aiming at…
Whether it's the (mostly) info-appliance market of iOS, or the productivity market of the Mac, Apple's products are much more like BMWs than Rolexes. The luxury is intertwined with the functionality.
Apple's OSX design work seems stagnant as well. I find Gnome since version 3.12 (yes Gnome) looks better than Yosemite. I use Yosemite at work every day and find it's a step down from Mavericks. Most of the improvements seem to be to apps I never use (Maps, Safari). The new dark top bar is embarrassingly ugly compared to Gnome dark theme. The icons look childish and half-baked. Gnome's design in minimal, clean, and f…
Gnome looks nice, and has it's "own" look - but is nowhere even near the quality of Yosemite IMO. And talk about quality issues! Any given thing is way more likely to break on a linux desktop environment. I love FOSS and have been a Gnome and Ubuntu user for years but integrating a thousand FOSS projects together presents many challenges to quality.