Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 1st Jul 2007 15:21 UTC
Sometimes, Apple's (or any other software maker's) complete lack of respect for usability never ceases to amaze me. Take today for example. Apart from the close, minimise, and "maximise" widgets Apple places on window decors, there is also a fourth widget programmers on the Apple platform can use. This widget resembles a sort of dash, and is placed on the top right corner of the window decor. This widget is used in many applications, both from Apple as well as from various third parties. It has one function: toggle the visibility of the window's toolbar.
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Member since:2005-07-12
Thanks for your explanation on the behavior of Finder Pierre. However, Thom's point is still valid because I'm guessing that not many folks would know this. To have such a prominently displayed widget that provides alternative functionality to a select group of individuals for legacy functionality completely divergent from what I expect of Apple. I'm not ready to show all the usability experts the door, but they might have considered burying this in the preferences settings or something.
Member since:2005-11-21
Member since:2006-10-28
Member since:
2005-12-31
Hi Thom,
Yes, the Finder's behaviour is surprising. But let's remember that lots of people were shocked and hated the new spacial-navigational Finder when it was first introduced.
Apple used that "toggle" button to provide a way to go back to the previous Finder look for those having trouble adopting the new one.
So the reason for this apparent inconsistent behavior is historical. I guess it would have been better to have a Finder preferences setting to chose which apparence should the Finder have and from that point of view you are right. But that "simpler" look - as you call it - is the former look which we happily enjoyed for years before the brushed metal came along (was it Panther? or Tiger maybe? ... can't remember).
The question is: will the Leopard Finder allow you to switch back to that original Finder apparence or will they stick to that iTunes-look and move forward once for all?
:-)
Have a good one,
Pierre.