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Comment by hyperhello | Hacker News Reader

I don't think Spatial Finder is as useful as it once was. The reason is that these web interfaces block the whole screen, so I generally need to move the browser to the side, beep open a finder window, drag the file in, move the browser back, etc. What I would really like to have back from those days is to drag a folder to the bottom of the screen and have it turned into a little tab, so I can have a "CS602" tab for example during that class. Alternatively, how about putting the tab in the menu bar and doing it as a little popup? I'd probably pay $5 for that right now if it was implemented in a not annoying way.

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On the Mac it works to start dragging a file from one place and, while keeping the dragged file selected with the mouse/trackpad, using Command-Tab to switch to another application. If that’s the Finder, once there Spring-loaded Folders can be activated/navigated while retaining the selected file.

One must-have app I put on any macOS install is Yoink, which gives you a "shelf" you can drag anything onto, then drag out later when convenient. Handy when the target app you're dragging to hasn't been opened yet.

I never thought too much about what you just said — specifically about web interfaces and their single-window nature — but now that you mention it, a lot has changed as a direct result.

I think of an app like Photoshop, and it had one window for each image you had open, and then floating toolbars, another window for layers, etc. You could really organize your workspace and have a sense of "mise en place" in a way that doesn't really exist anymore.

Now every application is essentially a 16:9 rectangle squeezed into a tab. The web's enabled some amazing things, but not at zero cost…

Something's lost but something's gained, in living every day.

I have a hot corner configured to reveal desktop, so I just pop my cursor into it, go into the Finder to grab the file, then boop the hot corner and I'm back in the browser, without any additional manual window management

Why not put an accordion folder in the dock?

Not a bad idea, but the dock has gone to pot too. For example I just dragged an alias of a folder there and it doesn't even understand I wanted the folder.

Everything seems to be at the point where you want to invite the developer over, get him drunk, and make him swear at his own product until he agrees the experience is not great. Of course there is no "the developer" anymore.

Move the browser to the side? I can never understand why anyone would want to manually shuffle windows around as a disorganized stack.

From my perspective the desktop metaphor UX was obsolete the moment it was conceived of. All anyone has to do is look at the physical desks of a thousand random people and it should be immediately obvious how little value there is in recreating that chaos.

It made a lot more sense back before every agent in the system had an interest in shipping the org chart and making their piece as cumbersome as possible to increase ad revenue.

Yeah I also have felt it weird and anachronistic that computer GUIs STARTED with a windows-based system, in an era of small screens, limited colors, limited resolution, and limited user expertise!

Working with such few resources, an iPad-like fullscreen UI would have made more sense and been more efficient.

Companies just wanted to show off I guess.

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