Finder (software)

The Finder is a central component of the graphical user interface of the Mac OS operating system. He is similar to the shell (there are command line and graphic-oriented shells) of other operating systems, the interface between user and system dar.

The Finder provides a graphical view of the file system and the devices in use. The desktop metaphor provides documents as lying letters with text or tabular content dar. devices such as the iPod MP3 player appear on the desktop and can be removed again. Documents and programs are opened by double-clicking and thrown for deletion in a " trash ".

The Finder is the first startup called application. He uses various services of the operating system Mac OS X to represent the graphical user interface.

The Finder can in principle be replaced by alternative programs.

Stages of the Mac OS Finder

Finder 1.0

The first Macintosh 128K had the full Mac OS operating system including Finder 1.0 in read-only memory (ROM). The Boot Floppy with the Finder contained only changes and bug fixes compared to the first version as a compact file. The Finder is the program that is started when no other program is running. If a program is started with a double, then the finder saves its state, ends on its own and start the desired program, after its termination, either automatically start another program or just back of the page.

Page 6

In addition to the familiar Finder it was in the Mac System 6.0 for the first time the multi- Finder with cooperative multi-tasking capability. The multi- finder could run multiple programs simultaneously. Mac OS 6 could be started with either the Finder or multi- page.

Finder 7

The multi- Finder replaced the traditional finder completely. The user could assign each document metadata, such as the label and comments.

  • Introduction of aliases, ie links that point to the original file.
  • Introduction of a list view with fold folders

Page 8

The Finder in MacOS 8 used for the first time multithreading in order to run several copy and delete operations simultaneously. In addition, were pop-up folder windows that are "docked" as a tab at the edge of the screen, as well as introduced a special " keys - View", in which each symbol is displayed as a button in the window that is started by a simple click.

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In this version were "spring -loaded folders" introduced. That is, if you went when you drag a file icon over a folder and waited for a moment, this folder is opened automatically, and you could so arbitrarily navigate deeply through the folder hierarchy. Furthermore, you could adjust tones for different events, using so-called " sound sets ".

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With Mac OS X 10.0, a newly developed Finder was introduced, the concepts of NeXTSTEP Workspace Manager and the Finder of Mac OS 9 should unite. It was written in C with the Carbon API, in contrast to the Workspace Manager, which was written in Objective -C using the Cocoa framework.

The user interface, which now followed the new Aqua style of Mac OS X, has been greatly changed. You could now folder contents in a table hierarchy ( "Column View" ) show instead, as in Mac OS 9 and earlier, only nested folders.

Finder 10.3

The Finder 10.3 dominates again awarded the functions labels and search for metadata Finder 7.0.

  • Labels are properties for each document that can be awarded for better organization. Later, you can search and select all documents from one category ( label, type of file, program manufacturer).

Finder 10.4

Here Spotlight was introduced, an index -based, very fast system-wide search. In any Finder window a Spotlight search field is integrated, search queries can be saved as Smart Folders in the introduced in 10.3 sidebar. So you had the results of a particular search always ready, for example, all documents that were opened within the last three days. The Finder 10.4 also dominated again the event noise function of the Finder 9.0.

Finder 10.5

The following new features were introduced with the Finder of Mac OS X 10.5:

  • Design: Instead of " Brushed Metal" a more simplistic, unified appearance is used.
  • Extended Sidebar: The objects are now in categories ( places, devices, shared computers, and searches - just like the Source list in iTunes ) grouped.
  • Cover Flow: With this new view files, folders, and programs can be presented in the style known also from iTunes.
  • Quick Look allows you to quickly preview multiple files without having to open each program.
  • Spotlight: In the sidebar already be the criteria of " Today ", " Yesterday " and " Last Week " and " All Movies", " All photos " and " All documents " is displayed. You can now use Boolean operators to narrow the search results by " AND", "OR" and "NOT". You can also by exact phrases (using quotation marks ), dates, ranges ( using greater than [ >] and less- than sign [ <] ), seek absolute data and simple calculations.
  • Communication between Macs: Approved for the common use of computers ( Macs and other PCs) in the same network are automatically displayed in the sidebar. The " Back to my Mac " and a. Mac account, you can connect to any computer via the Internet, on which also the same. Mac user account is logged on.

Finder 10.6

In the Mac OS version 10.6 (code-named Snow Leopard), the Finder has been completely rewritten, as a 64- bit application on the basis of Objective- C. New features were added not, except for the support of Grand Central Dispatch.

Hidden Files

To save the window position and size, and the layout of the file icons for a folder, sets the Finder to show hidden files with the name. DS_Store in each folder. Local files whose names begin with a dot are not displayed by default on the Mac itself. In these. DS_Store files all view options of a folder are stored, they are comparable to the desktop.ini under Microsoft Windows. This method irritated some users of other operating systems that access across a network such directories, as other operating systems, this information can not interpret and display with double click on error messages. Accordingly, one can on network drives can hide " dot files " such Unix-like or create these files off from the outset, which can be achieved by configuring third-party programs or by manually editing a configuration file.

Apart from networking irritates the existence of these metadata also on removable media, if such enabled on a computer with a different operating system ( " mounted" ) is. If one uses such as a USB flash drive on a Mac, so created the first page. DS_Store files and a wastebasket (. Trashes ). Now Deletes the Mac user files on the USB stick, so they are moved to the trash. Because of the trash can is a hidden directory (ie a folder named. Trashes ), the files can under other operating systems in standard configuration can not be seen, but still occupy space, if the trash was not emptied on Mac. In addition to the trash can and the. DS_Store files are created for each page of the file to which it is accessing a hidden dot file of the same name. So Copies a Mac user a single file to an empty USB stick, so you can find behind three files and the trash it. Unlike in the network, these Finder feature can not be disabled. But there is the possibility of the USB flash drive with the help of programs such as Finder Cleaner unsubscribe so that it all hidden files are deleted. Invisible files and system directories can be made ​​visible in the Finder on demand from the terminal or, for example with TinkerTool.

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