Hacker News Reader

Comment by jaffa2 | Hacker News Reader

does this index the disk to do this ? So the filemanager is working with an index rather than the files ? It could be stale ?

I haven't found a good file manager for mac since 15 years now. They all just about do the things I need but not good enough. I've never really done the dual pane thing, my favourite gui for file management was Windows XP. Every iteration of explorer since has gotten objectively worse.

On mac I don't even bother trying to filemanage. I remote in to a windows machine.

I need to be able to get paths and paste paths.

for my downloads I just sort by type in list view and delete whatever by type. just do that a few times a year no big deal. I don't understand why we can't have an AI that sorts out the files they half baked 'stacks' onto the desktop, but all that happens is i now have dozens and dozens of stacks which contain dozens and dozens of files.

View on HN

I assume this just uses standard system API, so spotlight or mdfind.

There's an app called Hazel that does your stack sorting. And you can get paths (copy file populates pasteboard with multiple forms, one of which is the file path) and paste paths easily (I use keyboard shortcut but it's also on the context menu). You can paste paths into goto box or even into file selector to instantly change the directory to the location of the file and select it. There are so many "hidden" things like this throughout macOS that it's worth asking before giving up hope that something might not be possible.

I’m in the same boat, I don’t like Finder (better than Windows Explorer though), nor do I like default macOS files / folders dialogs, and I really dislike drag and drop behavior on macOS

I dont understand why we are stuck in stone’s age with filesystems GUI

One thing worth knowing is in the mac file dialogs you can drop a file from finder into these and it will change directory to where that file is.

The other thing is in most apps in the title bar there is an icon. Drag that to finder and it saves the file. Kinda Risc os style.

You can also paste whatever file path is on the clipboard into a file dialog to instantly go to that path.

> and I really dislike drag and drop behavior on macOS

In the app you can have a dual pane with two folders side-by-side and select the file(s) you want to move/copy to the other folder and right click or open the command palette to do the operation, so you do not have to drag them (though dragging still works too). It's also possible to cut files with CMD + X and paste them somewhere else with CMD + V.

Most people having issues with the finder do not know half of what it can do; it’s interesting, really.

It appears some people having problems with Finder haven’t used it for ten years.

Do you have anything in particular in mind here? Long time macOS user but I like a good pro tip :)

I don’t have much actually, but at least:

    - Batch rename files (select multiple files, right click, “Rename…”);
    - Show/hide hidden files: `shift-cmd-.`;
    - Go to folder: `shift-cmd-G`;
    - `cmd-1` to `cmd-4` to quickly change view.

All four of these are awesome tips, thank you!

Is there any way to stop /prevent it enumerating tif files over the network ?

When i open a directory of 400 30MB tif files it grinds to a halt while it thumbnails them all over the network. Its unusable.

Just pushed an update. There's now a setting in Preferences to disable icon previews on network volumes. You can also set which file extensions should be excluded, which I hope will fix the grinding. Grab the latest build from the site. Thanks for the catch.

ahh i just saw this. I will try your software when i get a minute.

AFAIK, yes.

`cmd-J` -> Uncheck “Show icon preview”

Hopefully it’s enough, but I haven’t tried.

yeah but it's not configurable for local vs network as far as i can tell

Not AFAIK, no.

I prefer Windows Explorer's interface, where the folders are on the left side and the files on the right.

I wish Finder had that view.

> does this index the disk to do this ? So the filemanager is working with an index rather than the files ? It could be stale ?

Good question. There is no index. WhimFiles reads the actual directory live when you open it, and filtering runs in-memory on the real file list, so there's nothing to go stale. It also watches the folder and refreshes when things change on disk, so you're always seeing the real current state.

On getting/pasting paths WhimFiles does both: "Copy Full Path" in the right-click menu (or from the command palette), and "Go to Folder/File" where you paste a path and jump straight there. That was one of my own Finder annoyances.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com