Two in the bush
Canaries have been on my mind over the last day or so. Well, that and why Steve Job's Gulf Stream spent an afternoon in Lake Tahoe on Sept. 19th, but it's Apple Bug Friday, and we're back to the Finder...
It's kinda weird to be rinsing the shampoo from your hair and going "Oh, when they broke 64-bit apps with Security Update 2005-007... that was probably a canary. Ooooh and when they posted the new QuickTime 7 SDK via software update that included Panther headers instead of Tiger headers, causing them to pull yet another update and causing a bunch of developers to have to drag out their install DVDs..."
With most things, if you stare at a blemish you'll get ill. However, if you back up and try to take it in the context of the big picture -- get some perspective -- you can find a way to swallow it. With something like the Finder or Britney Spears, the more big picture you go, the worse it gets. At some point your brain reaches overload, and you're one step closer to curling into a fetal position mumbling about makes the baby jesus cry.
I've been a Finder bug away from fetal for awhile, but luckily some readers saved me from myself and sent in some really amusing Finder bugs. This one came from the comments in the previous post:
Add this to the list of annoying bugs in 10.4x...In the Finder, when you are in list view you can't use "cut" to edit a file name. It works fine in icon and column view, but nothing happens in list view. This annoys the hell out of me.
It worked fine in 10.3. How the hell did they screw that one up?
Just to make it clear, he's saying if you select a file name in the Finder, then wait or hit return, its not editable and you can use copy and cut and paste as you normally would throughout the system -- but you can't use the cut command if you're in list view. I'd not noticed this, as for some reason I use copy and then hit delete, but oh lord, he's right as of 10.4.2.
Yeah, that's worrisome.
And then I had an amusing session with a developer who will remain nameless, which pointed out several more Finder.app bugs:
- "Option-clicking the name to edit it immediately no longer works, as of 10.4, breaking a habit that's existed since I began Mac'in in System 6.whatever..."
This engendered a short discussion on "bug" versus "works as intended." To the person who was pointing out the bug to me, the above functionality was, at one point, "an advertised feature" of the Finder, to which I pedantically pointed out "Right, so was resizing and moving windows via their borders, and then they removed the borders and called it a feature."
Theoretically Apple could have just decided it wasn't going to work that way from now on, and removed it in 10.4, but I'd guess its a straight-up bug. However, this next one is most clearly a bug, and a canary at that...
- Take any file on your desktop who's name contains multiple words, then click the name to edit the name.
- Double-click the last word in the name to select it, then hit shift-option-left arrow to add the word to the left of the selected word to the selection.
- Instead, the word (or blank space) to the left is selected, unselecting the existing selected word. From then on, option-shift-key control works properly.
If the above bug is confusing to you, open anything that deals with text and has multiple words, and if you apply the steps above you'll see how its supposed to work.
I think what's really locking up my brain when it comes to the canaries is whether or not those at Apple in a position to make a difference -- way above the guy doing what he's told in XCode -- even recognize the harbingers of mediocrity and are putting in place improvements so we aren't in for more of the same. Unfortunately, the ivory tower may well be so insulated that only those on the lower floors can hear the shouting, and even if its being passed up the chain, those at the top may assume its nothing another million in the marketing budget won't fix.
Posted by drunkenbatmanOctober 07, 2005, at 05:43 PM
Comments (28)
Posted by: Anthony at October 7, 2005 05:59 PM
I think the fact that public ridicule doesn't even work anymore is a canary.
Posted by: elmindreda at October 7, 2005 07:27 PM
Marvellously illustrative image you got there :)
Tiger was the final insult as far as I'm concerned, and as of yesterday, I've switched to Debian. Why? Because after two and a half years, I'm tired of waiting for the day when Mac OS X will allow me to edit plain text files without noticeable lag.
Posted by: at October 7, 2005 07:40 PM
Go, drunkenbatman, go. -fizzit
Posted by: Ted Lee at October 7, 2005 08:14 PM
Even with all of the Finder bugs/inconsistencies, moving from Mac OS X to Debian is the equivalent of cutting off your arm to fix a hangnail.
The fact that the Mac community can point these problems out and still remain on the platform is a testament to where Mac OS X rates in the ecosystem. Sure, it's not perfect. But it's a hell of a lot better than the other players in the game.
Posted by: Anders at October 7, 2005 08:48 PM
I just moved to a 14'' ibook at my work and it's my first time on OS X, or really any mac operating system to be fair. One of the first things I noticed was that this damn keychain password notification kept popping up (for which my normal user password didn't work). SO! I clicked the question mark... only to discover a modal bug!
The keychain password popup is aparently set to be "always on top". And when the ? is clicked the help is brought up behind this little warning. And then I have to move the warning around to try and get a good look at the help on my somewhat defficient screen resolution.
Anyways.. that was my first really noticable bug I found, but it's only been a day.
~Anders
Posted by: Anthony at October 7, 2005 08:53 PM
Even with all of the Finder bugs/inconsistencies, moving from Mac OS X to Debian is the equivalent of cutting off your arm to fix a hangnail.That is entirely dependant on who you're talking about and what they want to do. Linux is much easier for UNIX users that happen to use MacOS than for everyone else, and the problems associated with it are generally one-time things solvable by the person in question. For example, getting X11 working is annoying but you only have to do it once and once you've done it a few times you can be sure you can do it again when needed. The problems with MacOS X are not known to be solvable, and they can happen more than once (bad updates) or continuously (bugs Apple won't fix, or permanent damaged caused by the bug).
Assuming a static valuation of the merits of the various OSes is wrong, and insisting that "most people" would prefer OS X is missing the point. To someone that already knows how to handle Linux it's simply a matter of giving up some of the perks of OS X in exchange for the perks of Linux.
I use a Debian-stable system as a desktop machine, and I use MacOS on my iBook. For me, software updates are a non-issue (Debian-stable is legendary for this), and if there were crippling bugs I would have the option of, at my own risk, replacing that particular package with a newer one or a hand-rolled one from the source. That would never fly with most users, but when it has to be done I can take responsibility for it myself and get it over with. There are many other disadvantages, but it's a tradeoff and for me it beats MacOS in the comparison. I still use both every day so I can be fairly sure I'm making an informed decision.
You wouldn't prefer Linux. Others do.
Posted by: simplisticton at October 7, 2005 09:55 PM
I second (third?) the "move to Linux" option. If only everything in my PowerBook was supported perfectly (I'd even settle for 'reasonably'), I'd switch.
That's the biggest hurdle: hardware support. Running Linux on my PowerBook is great except for the fact that I can't use the WiFi and suspend/resume doesn't work. Too bad those are deal breakers.
Patience, patience...
Posted by: Andre at October 7, 2005 11:58 PM
Here's another good one: iCal alarms. If I have an alarm alert pop up on an event that repeats, the date displayed is the date for the iteration. If I click for the alarm to repeat, say, an hour later, when the alert reappears, the date will be for the _original_ item, not for the current iteration. So I'll have an alert popup for an event happening today, but displaying "July 1". I'd call that a lack-of-testing canary.
Posted by: Scott at October 8, 2005 12:06 AM
Just out of curiosity, why would you want to CUT a file name? Wouldn't you be in danger of creating a file with no file name? Not a problem for power users, but a serious potential pitfall to file system for those who need hand holding. Seems like we shouldn't be asking why cut doesn't work in list view and why it DOES in the other two.
My only annoyance with Finder's file rename is that most of the time a split second after I enter the "edit" mode, my Mac seems to immediately go back out of it without my doing anything or while I'm in the middle of typing a new name.
Posted by: Anthony at October 8, 2005 12:25 AM
Wouldn't you be in danger of creating a file with no file name?If there aren't checks in finder to stop this, the rename system call will refuse to do it.
Posted by: Oliver at October 8, 2005 01:12 AM
another week goes by, and still my calculator.app crashes when updating the exchange rates...
Posted by: Mac-arena the Bored Zo at October 8, 2005 01:32 AM
option-click to rename works in Xcode. so I should think that it's a bug that it doesn't in Finder.
Posted by: Uli Kusterer at October 8, 2005 02:58 AM
Odd. I pesonally have been the happiest since ages with the new Finder. It finally doesn't forget when I set a folder to be toolbar-less anymore, and it generally feels more stable and more responsible on my Mac. Add to that Spotlight and Smart Folders, and this is the best (Mac OS X) Finder I've seen to date.
And since Finder now allows moving around its windows even when it's beachballing, even the occasions where it does that have become more bearable. This is the first time they at least did *some* work on this app.
Yeah, it's still a far cry from OS 9's Finder when it comes to usability, but there's still hope. Okay, knowing Apple that hope means I'll have to wait for 10.8 for Finder to become actually usable, but hey, leave me my illusions... At least it doesn't suck as much anymore.
Posted by: Uli Kusterer at October 8, 2005 03:01 AM
Oh, just one more thing: If any of you actually want to *do* something about the Finder: Ages ago I started the Filie project, which was an attempt at an open-source Finder. Sadly I was the only one doing any work on it, so eventually I had to scrap it (this is just too big for a single person as an after-work project). But the sources are still available (GPL), so if any of you wanna put their time where their mouth is, be my guest.
Posted by: cre8ive at October 8, 2005 03:06 AM
Now hang on a minute. According to Apple, OSX is the 'World's Most Advanced Operating System', isn't it? ;)
Posted by: Pontus Ilbring at October 8, 2005 04:05 AM
Just out of curiosity, why would you want to CUT a file name?
Suppose you have a file named "Bar Foo" that you'd like to rename to "Foo Bar". You'd try cutting the Bar and then pasting it after the Foo, only to realize that something that has worked since forever now is broken.
List View seems to be the buggiest of all Finder views -- all Apple programmers must have switched to using Column View.
Posted by: Pius at October 8, 2005 05:41 AM
My favourite Finder bug takes some explaining: you see, in the last iTunes update, they added this "intelligend shuffle" option. All nice and well. Except that they seem to have absolute morons translating iTunes to German, which means the option controlling intelligent shuffle doesn't go from "more likely" to "less likely", but from "same artist" to "same album". Of course, that's totally incomprehensible; luckily, a friend told me about this, or else I would still stare at this option in puzzlement.
Here's where the Finder comes into play: back in the good old days of 10.3, I would open the information panel for iTunes, go to the languages part, and deselect German.
In 10.4, they obviously thought I shouldn't be able to do that anymore. After all, the only possible use for that panel would have been to remove the current language, so the application is displayed in another language. That's disabled now. I still can deactivate every other language, but of course, that leads to no results (since those wouldn't have been used anyway). Great.
At least they closed my bug with "duplicate" instead of "works correctly".
Posted by: Moose at October 8, 2005 07:57 AM
Well, I'm running 10.4.2 and OPTION-CLICK does work for quick edit of the file name, although the cut-bug does exist.
Posted by: Paul Santora at October 8, 2005 12:22 PM
Here is another small bug... in the command-tab application switcher, if you don't use the default US layout (I use dvorak) you can't quit or hide an app by hitting the q and h keys respectively, the commands are hard-coded to the US layout equivalent (' and d) on the dvorak layout. It has been like this since 10.2 as far as I know... (never got a chance to test it on anything older).
Posted by: Dave at October 8, 2005 08:28 PM
I think the fact that public ridicule doesn't even work anymore is a canary.
My concern would be that Apple seems to be getting a bigger head about themselves than they should. The iPod and iTunes are great, but OSX should be the driving force. It's like they put a stupidly large amount of work into moving to a UNIX based system, and then went nuts improving speed and stability, but now they've sort of gotten sloppy, lazy, and uncaring. A shame, and I couldn't agree with your quote any more. Not listening to your customer base is the best way to alienate them. OSX can't be getting worse if they expect to compete with Longhorn (should it ever be released.)
Posted by: Anthony at October 8, 2005 08:53 PM
Public ridicule is a time-honored tool to get vendors to fix something when they'd like to pretend it's not happening or when the usual channels aren't working. But it only works when the user base doesn't ignore problems.
Posted by: jeremy whitman at October 9, 2005 02:31 AM
oh for the days when they made this OS with the user in mind and not with beating MS to the punch on some feature in mind....and the shit worked.
About itunes (I know we are talking about the finder here)....I do appreciate it and consider it good software, but if they keep mucking with the interface the way they are it will have the same usability of windows media player. The new improvements seem to be all confusing cosmetics.
New features are good,if they are implimented in a transparent way, but first the app should work the way it would seem to a user it should work.
For instance. I have my ipod set to update based on a smart play-list. This locks the ipod whicht prohibits me from arbitrarily throwing songs on my ipod which are not on that particular play-list. So to get a song on I either have to change the ipod prefs to no longer fish from that play-list (which is no where near big enough to fill the device), or build a new play-list of songs i want on the pod but don't want to have on my top-rated list, and check it off in the ipod prefs, or much with my working play-list a bit, or make the song fit the highest rated play-list that the ipod uses....to get a song on the device...this is way too complicated. Syncing the ipod with a playlist should NOT disable me just dragging a song onto the pod, assuming its not full.
Come on Apple. I'm pretty sure you guys know about drag and drop....(i realize this isn't a bug but its annoying as hell, and to me that is the same thing....)
the ipod w/ itunes is a flagship product these days, or damn near, and i don't get how they can put so much effort into making itunes more complicated (how many sub windows and buttons can the main screen have now? ?) when the obvious glory of the program has always been simplicity.
Apple's head seems to no longer be wired to its output device...
p.s.:
and why does the itunes store want me to login at seemingly random intervals when browsing free podcast listings? i've never bought or will buy anything from the music store...i'm not logging in.
The interface is going to hell in a non customizable handbasket....
The new commercial this super bowl should be the hammer flying backwards out of big brothers face, the face repairing, and the hammer killing the chick who tossed it. "Apple: think profits!"
Posted by: Charles at October 9, 2005 05:33 PM
I tried the Finder "bug". I don't get the bug you describe.
I find that it selects the left word just fine, in addition to leaving the right word selected. In both words in text files and in Finder files where I've clicked to highlight to edit.
So, you checked this out?
10.4.2, nothing tricky or developer; upgrade install from 10.3. (Could that be it?)
Posted by: Charles at October 9, 2005 05:35 PM
..and option-click works just fine to edit the name in the Finder too. What is this, I have the non-canary install??
Posted by: Jason Harris at October 9, 2005 08:49 PM
I wonder if the Finder thing depends on configuration. I can reproduce both bugs for all files on my Desktop and in windows using Icon View. I haven't tried for other views.
Posted by: Max at October 10, 2005 08:50 AM
For me, those keyboard commands are a little esoteric, possibly because I don't use them. I can't really reproduce the second bug you mentioned either. I do notice that if I press the left arrow TWICE with the modifier keys pressed that previous word does become selected.
Posted by: Grant Laughlin at October 10, 2005 07:11 PM
...in the command-tab application switcher, if you don't use the default US layout (I use dvorak) you can't quit or hide an app by hitting the q and h keys respectively, the commands are hard-coded to the US layout equivalent (' and d) on the dvorak layout.
There are two 'dvorak' keyboard settings, the 'dv' for standard dvorak and 'dq' for dvorak-qwerty. Dvorak-qwerty is a keyboard setting in which commands are mapped to the same location as qwerty. This is provided because sometimes commands are placed on the keyboard more because of the location (think quit & close) than because of the associated letter.
Where did you find the gyar? That photo makes me happy every time.