Designing a new Finder

[OS923]

What you are suggesting is starting to go away from the actual design of OS 9

i see what you mean. maybe there should not be too much removed and all new features should be at least opt-out - like you said, by disabling certain of the ++ features via finder prefs.

All features are defined in plugins. You disable a feature by removing the corresponding plugin.

[OS923]

one-click stuff/unstuff and zip/unzip would also be fun to have in the window top bar.

eventually it can just be taken from the stuff it menu (which should be apple event i think)

I would like to do the stuff/unstuff because the archive viewer from StuffIt Deluxe is too slow and uses too much memory, but I can't find the SDK.

[OS923]

If it fits the name of the current Volume would be great

I am sure the full path would be too long.

I won't do the full path. A path in a menu is better. The name of the volume is a good idea, but it's possible to have several volumes with the same name. Another option is to give your volume a label color and then draw the windows of this volume in this color. Another option is to give your volume an icon and then draw the icon in the windows of this volume.

[OS923]

I understand your concern. If you remove all plugins then it should look just like the old Finder.

[DieHard]

Another option is to give your volume a label color and then draw the windows of this volume in this color

That's great, works for me, because I already give each volume a different Color already

[WolfpackN64]

What I wonder is if it would be possible in the long run to create a form of snap window functionality in Mac OS 9 and in Finder, like Windows and many Linux distros do (up to snap a window to fullscreen, left for left side half and right for a right side half). It always boggled me Mac OS X (or macOS) never really included this feature (Sierra has it in a way that makes no sense whatsoever).

Maybe as an extension?

[OS923]

There is already such an extension but I didn't try it yet:
http://afturgurluk.org/mirrors/macintosh/archive.info-mac.org/gui/screen-grid-10.hqx

Abstract of INFO-MAC archived encoded Mac binary file
   'gui/screen-grid-10.hqx'
  Uploaded 08/04/2000   193200 bytes

From: Mamoru Misono <[email protected]>
Subject: ScreenGrid 1.0


ScreenGrid is a desktop-utility that makes operations to
drag and grow windows comfortable. When you drag or grow
a window, ScreenGrid helps you to
 + snap the window to screen edges.
 + snap the window to virtual grid on screens.
 + snap the window to window edges.
 + layout windows with certain offsets.
 + limit the movement of the window horizontally, vertically and 45 degrees.

System Requirement
 PPC or 68K Macintosh
 System 7 or later

ScreenGrid is $7 shareware.

If this isn't what you want, then the DragWindowGrid and DragWindow INIT Apple demos can be combined to such an extension. DragWindow is PPC, I can do 68K eventually.

[WolfpackN64]

Ah, thanks. I haven't found this yet. I'll try it as soon as I can get to my G4 Power Mac again.

[OS923]

There is already such an extension but I didn't try it yet:
http://afturgurluk.org/mirrors/macintosh/archive.info-mac.org/gui/screen-grid-10.hqx

I can't find the right program to decompress that file. It's base64. If I decode it, then I get a file which looks random but characters 59, 187 and 236 are unused. I checked several hqx files on several websites. They have the same problem.

[OS923]

This worked for me: http://www.webutils.pl/BinHex
First copy ftp://ftp.bu.edu/pub/mirrors/info-mac/gui/screen-grid-10.hqx
Then remove everything before

(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)

The documentation says:

ScreenGrid is distributed as shareware. If you would like to continue using ScreenGrid, please register and support shareware. There is no functional restriction on unregistered copy. However unregistered copy will sometimes ask you to register when starting up. Registration fee for single user license of ScreenGrid is $7(800 yen).

[classicmacreborn7]

I've actually been working on a replacement Finder.  Maybe I should post it in another topic...

[OS923]

I linked PCRE and PCRE2. This will be used to select files. One of the criticisms of the OS 9 Finder is that you can't select files with a regular expression.

[OS923]

This discussion is finished. Go to 9.3

[snes1423]

Hey os923 your websites down and clicking the link leads to Chinese malware 

[OS923]

My website had so many files and folders that it was difficult to maintain with FTP.

[OS923]

Taking over the desktop is still unresolved. I see 2 possible solutions:
- Cover the desktop with a window with a special WDEF.
- Install patches in Finder to redirect certain things to my program.

[teroyk]

I'm in favor of "Long Unicode Finder" because it describes best what it does.

How about Long Finder.
Mac OS 9.2.2 should support unicode. Look paths from installation CD:
/CD Extras/Language Kit CD Extra/
and
/CD Extras/Unicode/
or is those only in CD what came with Powerbook 667Mhz?

[cc333]

I don't think anyone has suggested SuperFinder yet, so I will

Either that, or how about we just call it Finder 9.3 or something simple like that?  Then it can blend in more, kind of like a natural evolution of the original Finder, rather than a rewritten replacement, and thus be more consistent with the rest of the UI as originally designed by Apple.

And, I think having a simple toolbar (and maybe also either a Windows-style "address bar" or OS X-style "path bar") in the style of Windows 95 (but without the on-window menu bar, since the omnipresent one at the top of the screen would render it redundant) slotted between the title bar and status bar would be useful.

Also, better right click support with more consistent and thorough contextual menus would be nice to have.

But, to prevent excessive feature creep, how about concentrating first on completing  relatively doable under-the-hood enhancements first, like faster file copy and better unicode support?

Then, once those core features are stable, more advanced features can be gradually added.  Perhaps in the form of plug-ins or add-ons (as in Firefox and the like)?

c

[OS923]

Hack Finder?

[Hopfenholz]

I thought of a good name

9der