4 ms·
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 dire
by 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 agoI 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 agoOK, 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.