Cool Mac Gear

In a letter below, John Martellaro suggests that Path Finder may be an OS X "killer app." I took a look. This is a very interesting and comprehensive program that it will take some time to really check out, but here's an overview.

Path Finder (Formerly SNAX) is a file browser for Mac OS X, similar in some ways to the Finder, but also providing many enhancements and putting an Aqua interface on some UNIX tools available under-the-hood in Mac OS X. Path Finder is an almost complete rewrite of SNAX. Now multi-threaded.

With Path Finder, you can:
• Navigate your disks quickly and easily
• Apply labels to your files ( just like in Mac OS 9)
• Use spring loaded folders
• Display your files in one of the three available views: icons, list or columns
• Compress and decompress your files
• Convert your graphic files to a few common formats
• View invisible UNIX files and folders
• Securely delete files
• Create and convert disk image files
• Manage your applications and favorites
• Open your files with any application
• Take advantage of contextual menus
• Copy file paths
• Copy, move and delete files
• Display your files with custom fonts as well as with custom text and background colors
• Quickly preview movies and pictures
• Change permissions, type, creator, user, group, etc.
• Mount your iDisk
• Customize the toolbar
• Find your files almost instantaneously
• Launch applications as root and modify or delete any file
• Navigate into file/application packages
• Fully customize the file browser
• Show/Hide file extensions
• Create aliases and symbolic links
• View files as hex
• And a few more things...

Other Path Finder features:

Spring Loaded Folders
Path Finder implements spring loaded folders in all of its three views, as well as in the path navigator. Drag an item over a folder or a button in the path navigator, wait a second, it blinks twice, and takes you to that folder.

Labels
Path Finder brings back the Labels feature found in Mac OS 9. Select a file or folder and choose a label from the labels menu found in the File menu — or the contextual menu. (There is currently no way to edit the labels' color or name.)

Customizable Toolbar
You can add any file, folder, or application to the Path Finder's customizable toolbar. The interface is simple, but not completely obvious. Open the toolbar customization panel by selecting "Customize Toolbar..." from the View menu. Then drag as many "Custom" items as needed anywhere in the toolbar. These custom items are placeholders that will be replaced by items you drag and drop on top of them. Next, close the toolbar customization panel, and drag and drop any file, folder or application on top of one of the "Custom" items you added. You may be wondering why this two step process is necessary. In the Finder, you can just drag and drop items and they are instantly added. The reason is that the Apple supplied Cocoa customizable toolbar does not yet have this functionality. Fortunately, once you have customized your toolbar, you probably won't change it that often.

Go to iDisk
The iDisk command (in the Go menu) mounts your iDisk. This activity is threaded, so even though the command is instantaneous, the mounting can take a few seconds.

Commands -> Convert Graphic
Open a graphic file and save it in another format. If you choose jpeg, you can also set the level of compression with a slider control. This feature is great for getting graphics small for posting to a web site. Use Grab to take a screen shot, open the file with the Path Finder graphic converter, compress it down, resave. It's very simple.

Commands -> Secure Delete
Secure delete writes a pattern over the file before actually deleting it. This prevents someone from using a file recovery tool to recover that file. Secure delete also offers the ability to delete as root. Deleting with root privileges allows you to delete any and every file on your disk. Finally you can delete those stubborn files that just won't go away when you empty the trash!

Path Finder's "Hotspot"
The gray band to the right of the file name is called the hotspot. Click on this once and it sends a double-click rather than a single click. Without this you would be constantly double clicking to navigate your disk using the mouse. Now you can open a folder, launch an app or open a document with just one click. You can also configure the hotspot to be over the files icon if you prefer. See the preferences panel for check boxes to enable and disable this feature.

Contextual Menus
Control click on files to bring up a contextual menu with various file operations.

Commands -> Compress/Decompress
Path Finder uses hfstar to do it's compression and decompression. hfstar is a variant of gnutar that handles resource forks correctly.

Path Finder -> Menu Key Editor...
You can assign any key command you want for almost every item in the menu bar. For example if you have a folder of mp3s that you want to access easily, first you would add this folder to your Favorites, then you would use the Menu Key Editor to assign it a key command like cmd-option-B or F3. Then if you're in Path Finder, hit that key sequence and you are immediately brought to that folder.

Commands -> New Disk Image...
You can easily create and modify disk images using Path Finder. First you create a disk image, copy your files to that image, and them convert the image to be compressed and locked. Now you can distribute that image over the internet just as if it were a CD-ROM image. The user just needs to double click your image and the contents appear. Path Finder is distributed in this way.

Applications Menu
Path Finder builds a menu of your installed Applications automatically. But those applications, or aliases to those applications must exist in a few standard places. Put all your apps, or aliases to apps, or aliases of folders of apps in the standard Applications folder either in your home directory or in the system wide Applications folder.

Favorites Menu
The Favorites menu displays all items in your Favorites folder. This is the same Favorites folder used by the Finder. Usually, aliases to files are stored here rather than the real file or application.

Go Menu
The Go menu contains all mounted disks plus some standard locations like Home, Applications, Documents, Favorites, etc.

Path Finder -> Preferences... or View -> Show invisible files
Show Invisible Files is a powerful feature that reveals Mac OS X's UNIX underpinnings. Turn this preference on and start exploring. Look at the boot volume to see most of the hidden UNIX folders like etc, usr, bin.

Path Finder -> Preferences... or View -> Treat packages as folders
Packages are really folders in disguise. The Finder and Path Finder normally display packages as single files, but sometimes it's fun to dig around applications and other packages to find out what they're made of. Turn this feature on and all packages will appear as folders. Simply double clicking on them displays their contents. You can also use the "Show Package Contents" contextual menu to open a package, but if your going to be digging through many items at once it's easier to turn on this preference.

Path Finder -> Preferences... or Columns -> Smart sorting
Smart Sorting groups items in the file view by type. At the top are apps, followed by packages, followed by folders, followed by documents. I find this feature extremely useful. For example when I open a folder of source code, the project file automatically appears at the top, followed by any folders followed by .h and .m files. This is perfect. I usually just double click on the first item which opens Project Builder and that's all I need.

Commands -> Launch as Root
Launching as Root is sometimes a necessity. Especially when you have files that won't delete when you empty the trash. Here's the procedure:
 
1) Make a copy of Path Finder, call it "Path Finder Root", if you like
2) Launch your original Path Finder and then select "Path Finder Root" in the file view.
3) Go to the Commands menu and choose "Launch as Root"
 
You will be asked for the root password. Enter it and now you'll have two copies of Path Finder running. Use Path Finder Root to change file permissions or unlock stubborn files. Use the Get Info panel to do these things. It's probably not a good idea to do too much as root; you could accidentally change things that make your machine unusable. Be careful!

The Path Navigator is described as the killer feature that makes Path Finder extremely cool. In the Finder it's always been a pain in the butt to view the parent of the currently displayed folder. The Finder's column view partially addresses this problem, but you still have to deal with the horizontal scroll bar and you don't get the benefits of the multi-columned hierarchical outline view. Try it for a few hours, and then try using the Finder. You will quickly realize that Path Finder is superior.

You can now even drag items to the Path Navigator buttons to move files to that folder.
Power user feature: option click on a button in the Path navigator to view that directory in a new window. Try it!

File -> Symbolic Link vs. Aliases
In classic Mac OS there are aliases. In UNIX, there are symbolic links. Both are similar but have slightly different behaviors. If you move the original file the alias points to, aliases are a little smarter. The Mac OS alias manager will try to locate the moved file and if it's successful, the alias is still good. Symbolic links will break if you move the file it refers to. Path Finder lets you create both. In the Finder you can only create aliases.

Threaded file copying
File copying in Path Finder was written from scratch and is fully multi-threaded. It is both fast and stable. Try to copy a folder of 10,000 files in the Finder; last time I tried, it crashed. Now try copying a folder of 500,000 items with Path Finder. No problem.

Commands -> View as Hex...
The Path Finder Hex Viewer is a simple tool to see the exact contents of any file on your hard disk. Sometimes you may try to open a file on your disk, and you get the alert saying that no application was found. Using the Hex Viewer, you can view the file and sometimes find header information that give you clues about what kind of file you are trying to open.

File -> Get Info
Path Finder has a Get Info panel similar to the Finder. Check it out. It's very easy to change the permissions, file owner and group name. In some cases you will have to launch Path Finder as root to change every file. See the section about launching as root for more information. Get Info also allows you to swap data and resource forks, or you can just delete the resource or data fork.

Tool Bar -> Preview Panel
The File View window and the Find panel window both have pop out preview drawers. This is a really cool feature. Open a folder of jpgs and open the preview drawer. Then just hit the down arrow on your keyboard to view every jpeg one by one. Also works with .pdf, .mov, .txt, .rtf, .aiff, .psd, rtfd, and many other file types.
By default QuickTime movies automatically play when previewed. If you don't want this behavior, change it in the preferences panel.

Commands -> Open in Terminal
This command launches Terminal.app and sets the current directory to the current directory displayed in the front most Path Finder window. This can be helpful if you need to quickly execute a UNIX command line tool on a file in the current directory.

Shortcuts
Use the keyboard for navigation, type the name to match, tab to go to next shift tab to go to previous. Use the arrow keys for moving up and down, left, right, and the return key for opening folders or launching applications.

Path Finder 2.0.x addes the following enhancements:
• Close and Close all (hold option key down for Close all)
• Path Finder is multi-threaded. Now when viewing slow network volumes or removable disks, Path Finder does not hang while it waits for information
• No more relying on the Finder. Path Finder doesn't call the Finder for any task (well, except for getting file comments...)
• "New File", similar to "New Folder", but creates an empty file. The default type is 'TEXT' and the extention is .txt
• Preview window. Now you can use a separate floating preview window as well as the old preview drawer
• Forward button
• Search toolbar item
• Connect to server: SMB, AFP, NFS WebDAV, etc
• "Always show file extensions" preference
• MP3 information in info display. Title, Artist, Album, etc
• New empty trash code. We no longer use the Finder to empty the trash
• Trashes view. Quickly see what's in your trash can(s)
• "Parent Folder" command to move back in the path hierarchy
• More icon size choices with "larger" and "smaller" menu items
• Icon view pagination choices. Can either layout left to right or top to bottom
• Icon view layout choices. Name on right or on bottom
• Hide/Show Path Navigator with 3 sizes
• New find interface. No longer in a separate window. Now find results are displayed directly in the browser window
• Highlighting in list view now only highlights the text and icon, not the entire row
• LaunchBar support
• Gideons Get Info support
• Finder contextual menu to "Reveal in Path Finder"
• Added mount point and device info to info display
• Added cmd-[ for Back and forward
• Version string not showing up for Carbon apps
• Text in preview info is selectable and copyable
• Inline renaming of files
• Fast .dmg, .img, .smi file mounting. Doesn't launch DiskCopy
• Copy and paste of files
• Added application information to info display
• New delete code
• Warn before emptying trash
• Don't allow permission changes on volumes
• Drag and drop editing in icon view selects files (should only select folders)
• Icons on desktop, plus volumes
• Volume rename
• Click on the preview drawer header to close the drawer
• Drag selection in list views. Click and drag anywhere to select multiple files
• Speed up key matching. Much faster now
• Please pay dialog doesn't show up when inactive (no more bouncing icon)
• Support hidden extension in save panels
• Hide extension checkbox
• Show all, hide others added to global menu
• Support for Jaguar's localized folders (Documents, Sites, Music, etc.)
• Hidden extension support
• Spring loaded toolbar buttons
• Path toolbar popup
• New Trash menu with floating trash window
• Can empty a trash on a particular volume
• Sped up fetching real icons
• Preview drawer will move browser window if not enough room to fit

Path Finder is available for immediate download at http://www.cocoatech.com. Path Finder is fully functional, registering turns off a periodic "Please Purchase" dialog. A single-user license costs $32.

Path Finder works on Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.

Refurbished Macs

From Henry Drygas

I too have had a good experience with a Refurbished Ti Power Book, but not from Small Dog, but from PowerMax in Portland Oregon. I have now two Macs from them and have been very happy with them. These are good people. That at least gives two sources for refurbished Macs. They are at http://www.powermax.com They also do trade ins and sell used equipment. As you can no doubt tell I like these folks.

Henry Drygas

Hi Henry;

I also frequently include listings and specials from PowerMax in The 'Book Review's "deals" section on Low End Mac, Fridays.

Charles

Proteus and other OSX killer apps

From Peter J. Pedersen

Dear Sir,

It is always a surprise to me that so many OSX users don't know about Proteus, the better of the two all-in-one IM program for OSX. This was the OSX killer app for me when I first began sniffing at the presumably "improved" Mac OS: being an expatriate of Denmark, and having been unable to persuade my Danish friends (and my substantial number of "virtual friends") all to use the same IM program, my screen (and my RAM) in OS9 is littered with little "Buddy lists". It's so much more comfortable to have just one program - Proteus - taking care of that. What's more, Proteus is significantly more stable than Fire, at least in my experience, and the UI is both elegant, functional and compact - a combination that's all but non-existing among OSX applications! Talk about wasting space!

As for OSX killer apps, I have recently been impressed by Chimera although it's still lacking some elementary features. But it's so very fast, it's based on a standardized codeset (unlike iCab, the lack of improvement of which I still mourn), it handles HTML, CSS, Java and all the other buzzwords according to the W3C standards. it has the ingenious Tabbed feature, and it looks good. Only criticism: it uses sheets, an OSX feature that I absolutely abhor! The IE invention of panes (in the left side) is so much better - pity it's found in IE! - since sliding into view INSIDE the window is far more intuitive than having a kind of drawer suddenly push the right edge of the window leftwards. And where is the "handle" on a sheet? In IE, you click once on the pane handle, and all the panes slide away, for easy recall on the left edge. Time to stop the rant over OSX UI degradation, though... :-(

THE killer app for OSX isn't a single application; it's the increasing influx of great programs from the *nix world and from really smart new programmers doing things noone had really thought about before. Watson is an obvious example of the latter category (except that it, as well as its protege Sherlock 10.2, is far less relevant for non-US citizens!), as is ChimeraKnight: if you want to upgrade to the latest version of Chimera, this (AppleScript/Cocoa) program does so automatically. But it does more than that: it stows away a compressed copy of the previous version of Chimera, making it easy for you to "downgrade" if you find the newest version less reliable. Easy access, all by the touch of a button! The catch here is that it's less relevant to modem users...

As for the former category, GIMP is a great example: 'nix users have made printer drivers - and better drivers than those provided by the hardware producers themselves - for just about every printer ever sold (GIMP here is the acronym of this project), and by including CUPS (the standard printer driver interface for *nix) into the latest versions of OSX, Apple has given OSX users the possibility of using this Open Source software. After a fashion, that is! - being Apple an' all... There is no easy, obvious user interface for installing GIMP drivers in the Print Centre, and the Apple version of CUPS only includes support for the USB Ethernet ports - the serial and FireWire ports are not addressable (though a "simple" recompilation and installing of the standard CUPS in OSX will give you that - simple to *nix heads which excludes me). It's incomprehensible to me why Apple hasn't taken advantage of this - just as the implementation of the TWAIN standard for scanners has only recently been implemented in OSX, and in a still buggy version. Why not take full advantage of *nix, once you have decided on using it? Another rant - I'll try and keep them down, promise!

But this infusion of "new blood" IS becoming the killer feature of OSX, that which in the end will make its adoption unavoidable - even for those of us that are persuaded that OS9 is still the more intuitive and able computer interface**. Even for me.

Regards,

Peter J. Pedersen

PS: I have just finished an answer to Gene Steinberg's "The Jaguar Report: Memo to Mac OS 9 Holdouts" ( http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#holdouts ) and will post it on MacBloQs ( http://macbloqs.blogspot.com ) later today

Hi Peter;

Great rant! Keep 'em coming. ;-)

Proteus sounds like it's worth a look. I Just downloaded Chimera 0.6, and will give it a checkout.

I agree that it will be a critical mass of OS x programs and features rather than one application that will make OS X the clear choice to use. We're getting there. If it just weren't for the poor Finder performance, slow scrolling, etc. on these older machines. I'm sure even that could be improved on with a clean install and other tweaking, if I had the time to get to it.

That of course is one of the pertinent points in this discussion. One of the great things about the Classic Mac OS is its low maintenance requirements. Like the Energizer bunny, it just goes and goes. In ten years, I may have absolutely had to do two or three complete system reinstalls on my own machines, and I rarely have been obliged to run diagnostic and repair software.

I think I ran for about two years on the WallSteet with a System install that began with my original OS 9.0 installation (which itself may have been an upgrade of OS 8.6; I forget). I upgraded to OS 9.0.4; then "downgraded" when that proved unstable by just trashing all the items in the extensions folder labeled 9.0.4 along with the System and Finder, and running th 9.0 installer again. Took about ten minutes, and worked fine.

I eventually upgraded that install to OS 9.1. dragged it off and back onto the hard drive when I replaced the latter with a bigger one, and again during a reformat, and so on. I think there may have been a multi-generational remnanat of that Dec. 1999 OS 9 install still running on the WS when it croaked last summer. I *miss* that flexibility in OS X.

Charles

Re: Modify partitions without wiping the entire disk

From John Dennis

Modify partitions without wiping the entire disk

You can read the full story on macosxhints by clicking this link:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021119053614569#comments

Hi John:

Thanks for the info. I'll look into it.

Charles

Killer App

From John Martellaro

Here is the coolest Mac OS X application ever. Killer app if there ever was one.

Path Finder 2.0.2

http://www.cocoatech.com

I can't live without it. It embarrasses the Mac OS X Finder.

Chimera 0.6 is awfully good as well.

John Martellaro

Hi John;

I downloaded Path Finder (see above) and also Chimera 0.6, but haven't tried the latter yet.

Charles

The Next Killer Apps

From: John Martellaro

Recently Jeff Harrow at the Harrow Group discussed the Next Killer Apps in computer technology. One of my articles about computer learning was generously included in his report. The whole collection of ideas is a tour-de-force of futuristic thinking.

http://www.theharrowgroup.com/articles/20021118/YourKillerApps.htm

started at

http://www.theharrowgroup.com/

This is a great report to subscribe to in general.

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear