This is the first installment of ThinkSecret’s “Inside Tiger” series, covering Mac OS X Version 10.4. Today, they begin looking at one of Tiger’s most touted features, Spotlight, a new suite of systemwide search tools. Elsewhere, SMH in Australia has a Tiger article. Update: Appleinsider has more Tiger articles with screenshots: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Inside Tiger: A Look at Spotlight
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Does Spotlight finally obsolete the transitional mix of creator codes and file extensions that OS X currently uses to type files and match them with applications? I would like to hear from someone who has played with the WWDC preview about whether Tiger still depends on suffixes or if it has moved on to a more BeOS-like file typing system. (With Dominic Giampaolo at the helm, we can only hope…)
The type/creator codes were a good idea a few years ago. I have mixed feelings about them now. From time to time the Desktop DB would become corrupt and of course I’d have to rebuild it and this would require a reboot because I’d do it the old school way: unhide them with ResEdit, delete them, reboot and recreate them.
I’d like to not rely on extensions but until there’s a better solution, I don’t have many options.
Spotlight looks powerful. I especially like the notion of Smart Folders. However, from what I’ve seen so far, it only looks like Smart Folders can be saved to the Finder sidebar. I browse my filesystems exclusively in column view, with no sidebar or toolbar, which I personally find to be the most efficient view because it makes keyboard navigation very easy. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could also save Smart Folders to your desktop or even within other folders? Or does this just sound interesting to me right now in theory but would really be impractical and complicated in use? Desktop Smart Folders, at least, seem like a cool idea.
My other comment is that it looks like the naming and interface for Spotlight technology between applications is inconsistent. “Save this search” in Address Book could easily be “New smart group” for parity with “New smart mailbox” in Mail. If Spotlight is an integrated system-wide technology, it should be as consistent as possible to facilitate learning by new users.
Anyway, it’s good article. I’m looking forward to the other installments, much as I looked forward to ThinkSecret’s series of Panther previews last year.
I like column view too, but why does that negate the use of the sidebar? They aren’t mututally exclusive.
For how the smart folder themselves are implemented, I would use a normal folder with a bunch of symlinks (so it can span partitions correctly), maybe a little logic to not show links to those files on previously-mounted-but-now-unmounted partitions, and of course the indexing daemon which recieves msgs from the kernel telling it when a new file is created and for the indexing to begin on said new file.
The daemon part is as far as i understand it, how it is done. I’m curious what they use for the smart folders. Something *really* cool would to have access to the smart folders from the command line 🙂
smart folders can be saved to desktop like normal folders…
look here to see that smart folder is on desktop while also demonstrating qt live scaling…
http://www.davidlegatt.com/pix/qtscale.mov
You are right – column view and sidebar aren’t exclusive. I just prefer not to use the mouse or trackpad when browsing my filesystems – can you alternate focus from the sidebar to the columns and back with the keyboard? I know that you can use the arrow keys to move to the columns from the sidebar, but can you move back to the sidebar? (Honestly though, I’m also one of those curmudgeons who don’t like the brushed metal Finder and I find Finder windows with sidebar, toolbar and column view to be quite large.)
And you’re right again – accessing smart folders from the command line would be very cool.
Thanks! I’ve been reading many previews of Tiger and that is the first I’ve heard of smart folders on the desktop. Very cool.
If you are looking for screenshots and articles on Tiger, i Noticed http://www.appleinsider.com has much more detailed info.
Good articles. The AppleInsider article on Mail 2.0 is interesting. The mailbox bar in Mail 2.0 looks like a great idea as it uses less screen real estate than the drawer. Still, I will be disappointed if it’s not accessible via keyboard shortcuts.
Also, check the AppleInsider article on Safari 2.0. It looks like the rewritten Javascript implementation has made phenomenal advances in performance.
One issue I would like Tiger and future iterations of iLife to resolve is the lack of consistent shortcuts to open main viewer windows in important applications. Although Expose has eliminated much of the need to close main viewer windows in applications like Mail and iCal, I find that I often close the main viewer windows in these applications by accident. In Mail, I can key option-command-n to open a new viewer window, but if I accidently, or even purposely close the main viewer window in iCal, I have to use the menu item iCal under Window to open a new main window. That’s an unnecessary inconsistency. Granted, I have assigned F2 as a system-wide keyboard shortcut to the menu bar, but that involved more keystrokes. (If I’m wrong and there is an easier and consistent way to open a new main viewer window in iCal, let me know.)
Anyway, Panther is by far my favorite current OS and I can’t wait for Tiger.
What a joke……
“Tiger, the fifth upgrade of OS X in four years, will be released in mid-2005. It will be installed on new Macs but upgraders will pay $A229, as they did for Panther, modest compared with the $A589 tag on Windows XP Pro.”.
Lets see here…….. for the poor victims who bought into the original OSX then all the subsequent high priced upgrades with all their attendant BS due to NO REAL testing by Apple, I note he left out that mess called Jaguar…… Apple wants you to throw more money at them and still be nowhere near XP Pro ??? If you bought Win 2000 at the time OSX came out you would still be further ahead than with MAC including all MACs upgrades to today !!!! eerrr …..go to HELL !! Bunch ot theves.
This feature was originally slated for inclusion in Panther 10.3 and never appeared – hopefully it will eventually emerge.
This feature was originally slated for inclusion in Panther 10.3 and never appeared – hopefully it will eventually emerge.
I doubt it, the problem was with the ipod, not being suitable to use constantly as a desktop-level harddisk.
On the PC, I went from:
DOS -> DOS+Windows 3.0 -> DOS+Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 -> Windows 98 SE -> Windows 2000 -> Windows XP
That’s three upgrades since the almighty 95 was released. I skipped on Memory Error (ME edition) as I never heard anything good about it. Total price including 95 = $500 (rough estimate)
On the Mac, I went from:
OS 9 -> OS X 10.1 -> OS X 10.2 -> OS X 10.3 -> and I plan on Tiger as well.
That’s two upgrades (going on three) since I switched over to OS X. Total price = $360.00 (again, rough estimate. 10.1 cost only $99)
It appears that Windows has been upgraded more than OS X on my end. On the PC side, I have all but given up, and refuse to upgrade my system anymore. I found that Apple’s updates are more than just bug fixes, they add amazing features as well. Things that make my daily use more enjoyable. Still no BeOS for the fun factor, but in my eyes, Windows isn’t even close.
Yes I am right on target….you will find I am too if you read the SMH article. (silly morning hearald) the idoit jurno could only give a BS cost as a reason to negate MS’s product. Joke really when you consider its MS that keeps bailing Job’s sorry rear out of trouble.
On the BeOS you could always save a query and re-use it. That’s exactly what those “smart folders” are. Except for the desktop icon, i guess.
It’s nothing new and revolutionary. Just to put that straight.
Isn’t this forum great. As is said: You can cure ignorance but you can’t cure stupidity. Lighten up folks and stick to the topic. Opinions about how great or miserable something is wastes time and energy. Also, try to get the facts straight and make reasonable conclusions from reasonable comparisons.
This forum is sounding more like the illogical debates between diehard Republicans and Democrats.
Thank you
Apple talks about new universal access technology, but it seems they haven’t included new voices that match the AT&T ones in quality. I would love to hear more about this VoiceOver feature. Anyone that has the preview want to add in?
On the PC, I went from:
DOS -> DOS+Windows 3.0 -> DOS+Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 -> Windows 98 SE -> Windows 2000 -> Windows XP
On the Mac, I went from:
OS 9 -> OS X 10.1 -> OS X 10.2 -> OS X 10.3 -> and I plan on Tiger as well.
Well if you start that far for microsoft, why not mac.
You should at least start with 8.0, because when I bough my first mac with 8.0, 98 was on the marker
8.0+8.5+9.0+X+X.2+X.3+X.4
that is 7 versions that you had to pay
And since X, it’s one per year.