3 ms·

A friend of mine just got his first mac recently, and he mentioned this same complaint to me - I had no idea, because I almost never use the Finder for file man

by mmc 17y ago

A friend of mine just got his first mac recently, and he mentioned this same complaint to me - I had no idea, because I almost never use the Finder for file management. (I assumed you could do cut & paste) I always just use 'mv', etc. from a terminal. So this is genuine curiosity - is there something that other people do for which a Finder window and cut and paste is better/faster/less prone to mistakes, or is it just that the shell is not as familiar for them?

tsuraan 17y ago
Sure, if you need to move a bunch of files whose names don't match any particular pattern, then using a GUI tends to be more efficient. Suppose you have a directory with a hundred documents in it, and you want to categorize them into subdirectories. With a shell, you'll probably actually need to have two terminals open, one to keep the full list of files available, and one to type commands. You'll mv file1, file3, file4, file7, etc using tab-autocomplete, but it's still going to take a bit of typing and a bit of time. With a GUI, you look at the full directory contents in the file manager, control-select each file you want to move, and then drag them into place. If there are a lot of files, and they don't have filenames that match shell patterns, then a GUI can be faster.
- bretthoerner 17y ago
  I agree. But in the rare case that I need to move a bunch of weirdly named files - I have no problem hitting Command+N to open another Finder window, get it to where I want to be, and drag the files to there. I just can't imagine a hacker workflow that involves doing that even once per week, much less day. I'm not saying I don't miss Cut/Paste on those occasions, but it comes up so rarely and I feel like I gain so much more by using OS X that I just don't care.
- mmc 17y ago
  OK, I'll buy this. At first I couldn't think of a real use-case that matched your description, but then I realized one that might be close - Say I want to copy some pictures in a directory that relate to a craigslist posting over into another directory. I've done that. And since I only ever use those photos once, I prefer not to import them into something like iPhoto or the like. So that's a case for having a GUI file manager, but (back to the original point), I'm not sure it's a case for cut n' paste.
mr_cheese 17y ago
You can copy and paste, but not cut and paste. Moving with the mouse isn't so bad though -- you can select the files and start dragging them on top of folders. If you hover over a folder for a few seconds, it will open, and then you can hover over another folder to open it, etc., until you get to the place you want to be.
- GeneralMaximus 17y ago
  Also, drag a file over a folder and hit <SPACE> to open it instantly.

by mmc 17y ago

tsuraan 17y ago

Sure, if you need to move a bunch of files whose names don't match any particular pattern, then using a GUI tends to be more efficient. Suppose you have a directory with a hundred documents in it, and you want to categorize them into subdirectories. With a shell, you'll probably actually need to have two terminals open, one to keep the full list of files available, and one to type commands. You'll mv file1, file3, file4, file7, etc using tab-autocomplete, but it's still going to take a bit of typing and a bit of time. With a GUI, you look at the full directory contents in the file manager, control-select each file you want to move, and then drag them into place. If there are a lot of files, and they don't have filenames that match shell patterns, then a GUI can be faster.

bretthoerner 17y ago
I agree. But in the rare case that I need to move a bunch of weirdly named files - I have no problem hitting Command+N to open another Finder window, get it to where I want to be, and drag the files to there. I just can't imagine a hacker workflow that involves doing that even once per week, much less day. I'm not saying I don't miss Cut/Paste on those occasions, but it comes up so rarely and I feel like I gain so much more by using OS X that I just don't care.
mmc 17y ago
OK, I'll buy this. At first I couldn't think of a real use-case that matched your description, but then I realized one that might be close - Say I want to copy some pictures in a directory that relate to a craigslist posting over into another directory. I've done that. And since I only ever use those photos once, I prefer not to import them into something like iPhoto or the like. So that's a case for having a GUI file manager, but (back to the original point), I'm not sure it's a case for cut n' paste.

mr_cheese 17y ago

You can copy and paste, but not cut and paste. Moving with the mouse isn't so bad though -- you can select the files and start dragging them on top of folders. If you hover over a folder for a few seconds, it will open, and then you can hover over another folder to open it, etc., until you get to the place you want to be.

GeneralMaximus 17y ago
Also, drag a file over a folder and hit <SPACE> to open it instantly.