Even though Snow Leopard is supposed to be all about tweaking and performance, AppleInsider claims to have some information regarding new features coming in Snow Leopard. They claim Apple is working on bringing Exchange support to iCal, Address Book, and Mail, a feature called ImageBoot, and - insert drum roll - a new Finder written in Cocoa. Testers also claim that other bundled applications are written in Cocoa. This isn't all that weird seeing Carbon doesn't come in a 64bit flavour.
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Member since:2007-11-13
I've read whole articles dedicated to how bad Finder is, but I just don't see it. Sure, I prefer Thunar to anything else, but to me, a file manager needs to (A) remember my last-used view mode, and (B) provide instant access to my most-used folders. Anything else, Terminal is one click away.
Would you really want something as complicated as Midnight Commander just to open a Word doc? If I need to view two folders, I open a second window. If I need to view three folders...I can do that too! What do you MC buffs do?
Member since:2005-08-08
For those that want a much more advanced "finder" there are replacements out there. Adding something more complicated or wildly different would be a bad thing for the majority of the users. For the most part I am quite pleased with it and couldn't imagine using neither a commander clone nor some spatial madness.
Rewriting finder in cocoa is a good thingâ¢, plain and simple. Carbon is outdated and needs to go. So from a purely technical perspective it's time for Apple to eat its own dog food and use their first class frameworks.
Member since:2005-07-06
Most of the criticism of the Finder that I've read doesn't come from people who would prefer a more advanced/complex finding, it comes from those who wish it was closer to the "classic" MacOS Finder (like John Siracusa).
Member since:2005-11-21
Let's hope they learn from their past mistakes and bring Finder into the 21st century.
Cocoa Finder + Cocoa Services, system wide without the incumberance of Carbon will bring it that much closer to Openstep.
Member since:2005-07-06
Yes, it does. Multi-threading comes "for free" with Cocoa since Leopard. Currently there are some occasions that a Finder window locks when doing certain tasks. Multi-threading is possible with Carbon as well, but it requires more work. Rewriting an app with Cocoa may be the easier solution for the long term.
Member since:2005-07-07
Member since:2006-05-18
Yes it would.
If you find the ability to move data seamlessly between devices appealing, and you wish for more transparency and interoperability between your iP[hone/od], iTV, iBook and things like MobileMe, calendaring, etc., a Cocoa Finder is your ticket.
Look at the APIs: Carbon is an extended legacy framework, with a history going back to 1982. There are some seriously hairy, seriously inefficient workarounds lurking in there.
Cocoa, while arguably a "legacy" framework in its own right, being an extension of code dating back to 1987-88.
The difference here is that the NeXT APIs were new - from scratch, while Carbon goes back to the time when Macintosh Toolbox (ROM) calls were the order of the day.
The move from Carbon to Cocoa for a central application such as the Finder is long overdue in my opinion.
Does this mean that people are ready to grasp the awesomeness of "Services"? I don't know about you, but a "Services" menu in the Finder, allowing you instant access to things like background processing, shoving things through Automator, or interacting directly with other applications without launching them or switching into them is appealing to me, and would signal the intent of apple to move beyond manual, action-driven interfaces, and into a mode where a "Web 2.0" style paradigm shift can occur in the MacOS.
'Bout time.
Member since:
2005-07-07
Rewriting Finder in Cocoa isn't going to automagically make it better, like some people keep insisting. The only benefit from rewriting it would be the 64 bit support.
Let's hope they learn from their past mistakes and bring Finder into the 21st century.