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Having to press CMD+Down to enter a folder, or not being able to cut (only copy) files. It was designed to be used via mouse for only the most basic of operatio

Having to press CMD+Down to enter a folder, or not being able to cut (only copy) files. It was designed to be used via mouse for only the most basic of operations. I used Ubuntu for years and much prefer the Nautilus (not sure if they still use that) file manager.

derefr 9y ago
> Having to press CMD+Down to enter a folder Personally, this has grown on me. It makes sense that Enter edits the filename, because the filename is a form field, and the Enter key seems to be assigned universally by the OSX HIG to switch the keyboard's arrow keys et al between having movement between form fields, and movement of the text caret inside a form field. Basically, consider your desktop to be an Excel spreadsheet. Would it make sense for Enter to not do what it does? It also, separately, makes sense that CMD+Down enters a folder (or, y'know, opens files/starts applications), because it's the complementary operation to CMD+Up. You go "up out of" a folder; you go "down into" a folder (or document, or application.) Nicely, unlike with Enter (which is overloaded with text-editing uses), this allows there to be a universal HIG-approved accelerator for an application's "descend" or "invoke" (or hopefully both) action. (But if that isn't a sensible justification, some people just take the stance that Enter being "edit this field"—being a system-wide universal—has priority over whatever the Finder might want to use it for, so the Finder just has to get its own accelerator. Thus, CMD+Down.) See also: CMD+[ and CMD+] as universal Back/Forward shortcuts. If they were anything else (say, if Back was mapped to Backspace), they couldn't be universal. But nothing was already using CMD+[ and CMD+], so they're free to be a universal convention. (Seriously, they work in iTunes! And in System Preferences!) > not being able to cut (only copy) files People think this functionality isn't there in the Finder, but it is! It just... has slightly different semantics than in all other apps... for some reason. From https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201236 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201236: > Option-Command-V — Move: Move the files in the Clipboard from their original location to the current location. IOW, you don't decide whether something is a "cut" or a "copy" when starting the async-buffered-drag-and-drop-operation; you decide whether something was a "cut" or a "copy" when performing the drop part of the async-drag-and-drop-operation. (Which is similar to the synchronous drag-and-drop operations you perform with the mouse: to turn a "move" into a "copy" of a dragged file, you hold the Command key as you let go of the mouse button. You're modifying the drop event, not the drag event.)
- ljosa 9y ago
  Am I remembering incorrectly, or was it the case before that you needed to press Enter (or Fn+Return on laptops) to rename a file? Did they change that recently?
donatj 9y ago
I think you are mistaken about the keyboard. Basically every action you can perform has a keyboard shortcut. On top of that you can execute basically any command from a menu by hitting CMD+SHIFT+? And typing the menu name of the command.

derefr 9y ago

> Having to press CMD+Down to enter a folder Personally, this has grown on me. It makes sense that Enter edits the filename, because the filename is a form field, and the Enter key seems to be assigned universally by the OSX HIG to switch the keyboard's arrow keys et al between having movement between form fields, and movement of the text caret inside a form field. Basically, consider your desktop to be an Excel spreadsheet. Would it make sense for Enter to not do what it does? It also, separately, makes sense that CMD+Down enters a folder (or, y'know, opens files/starts applications), because it's the complementary operation to CMD+Up. You go "up out of" a folder; you go "down into" a folder (or document, or application.) Nicely, unlike with Enter (which is overloaded with text-editing uses), this allows there to be a universal HIG-approved accelerator for an application's "descend" or "invoke" (or hopefully both) action. (But if that isn't a sensible justification, some people just take the stance that Enter being "edit this field"—being a system-wide universal—has priority over whatever the Finder might want to use it for, so the Finder just has to get its own accelerator. Thus, CMD+Down.) See also: CMD+[ and CMD+] as universal Back/Forward shortcuts. If they were anything else (say, if Back was mapped to Backspace), they couldn't be universal. But nothing was already using CMD+[ and CMD+], so they're free to be a universal convention. (Seriously, they work in iTunes! And in System Preferences!) > not being able to cut (only copy) files People think this functionality isn't there in the Finder, but it is! It just... has slightly different semantics than in all other apps... for some reason. From https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201236 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201236: > Option-Command-V — Move: Move the files in the Clipboard from their original location to the current location. IOW, you don't decide whether something is a "cut" or a "copy" when starting the async-buffered-drag-and-drop-operation; you decide whether something was a "cut" or a "copy" when performing the drop part of the async-drag-and-drop-operation. (Which is similar to the synchronous drag-and-drop operations you perform with the mouse: to turn a "move" into a "copy" of a dragged file, you hold the Command key as you let go of the mouse button. You're modifying the drop event, not the drag event.)

ljosa 9y ago
Am I remembering incorrectly, or was it the case before that you needed to press Enter (or Fn+Return on laptops) to rename a file? Did they change that recently?

donatj 9y ago

I think you are mistaken about the keyboard. Basically every action you can perform has a keyboard shortcut. On top of that you can execute basically any command from a menu by hitting CMD+SHIFT+? And typing the menu name of the command.