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Generic Mac Questions

gangsu

By gangsu
in The Keyboard Corner

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Tom Fiala

Tom Fiala

Posted
Posted

Gangsu: I use that "software update" menu about once a week. It's amazingly easy, compared to Windows updates.

 

There's also a program you can download from the "automator" section of the apple website - I think it's called "Maintenance 3.6" - and it automates all your system maintenance - with just a couple of clicks. Also worth having- and free.

 

I downloaded the shareware Mac antivirus program "clam Xav" - but it's never found any issues, despite my surfing habits.

Tom F.

"It is what it is."

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RABid

RABid

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Posted

The other night I started to sit down with Garageband and updater kicked in. I told it to run updates without paying attention to what it wanted to update. Next thing I know it is downloading a few hundred meg of updates for most everything.

 

I ended up playing Football on the XBox360 for the next few hours. :P

 

Robert

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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kanker.

kanker.

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by gangsu:

This is some kind of crazy computer. All I did was plug in the ethernet cable. Done.

Once again, welcome to the world of the Macintosh. ;)

 

 

BTW - don't worry, at some point you'll run into something with it that'll make you want to bang your head into a wall. They're not perfect. Just *generally* more user friendly.

A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable.
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soundscape

soundscape

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by kanker, apparently:

They're not perfect. Just *generally* more user friendly.

Microsoft spends a lot of money on useability testing and has an enormous R&D spend too.

 

For me OS X loses major points because it doesn't have a good task-oriented UI and it's not designed to "HIDE" what's going on behind the current app--"maximize" isn't intended to necessarily maximize the window and there's no concept of Windows' "Multiple Document Interface." These things are actually written into the OS X user interface guidelines. Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

 

Originally posted by Tom Fiala:

I use that "software update" menu about once a week. It's amazingly easy, compared to Windows updates.

 

Windows Update is a mess. Fortunately in Windows Vista the Web-based interface will be gone.

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kanker.

kanker.

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by soundscape:

Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

I've never felt the need to hide windows when using multiple apps, or to 'maximize' a window when using an app. Command-Tab (or Apple-Tab) does a great job of app switching quickly and easily.
A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable.
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soundscape

soundscape

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by kanker, apparently:

Originally posted by soundscape:

Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

I've never felt the need to hide windows when using multiple apps, or to 'maximize' a window when using an app.
'Course not.

 

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4564/osx1ew1.png

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7477/osx2zf1.png

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soundscape

soundscape

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by gangsu:

You think I should concern myself with updates? I'm only using GarageBand at the moment.

Yes, but especially on a major update do a quick Google first--sometimes there are issues and it's better to wait until they're sorted out before updating. (You'll often find the issues are in 'news' stories so it's pretty easy to find out.)
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steadyb

steadyb

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by soundscape:

For me OS X loses major points because it doesn't have a good task-oriented UI and it's not designed to "HIDE" what's going on behind the current app--"maximize" isn't intended to necessarily maximize the window and there's no concept of Windows' "Multiple Document Interface." These things are actually written into the OS X user interface guidelines. Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

Command+tab lets you switch aps instantly. Is that not fast enough for you?
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steadyb

steadyb

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by soundscape:

For me OS X loses major points because it doesn't have a good task-oriented UI and it's not designed to "HIDE" what's going on behind the current app--"maximize" isn't intended to necessarily maximize the window and there's no concept of Windows' "Multiple Document Interface." These things are actually written into the OS X user interface guidelines. Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

You have got to be kidding.

 

Try using Expose. F9 shows you all windows, F10 shows you all windows within an app, F11 shows you your desktop.

 

Windows doesn't come within a mile of being as elegant and usable an OS as OSX.

 

BTW Command + tab lets you switch between or select apps

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soundscape

soundscape

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by steadyb:

Originally posted by soundscape:

For me OS X loses major points because it doesn't have a good task-oriented UI and it's not designed to "HIDE" what's going on behind the current app--"maximize" isn't intended to necessarily maximize the window and there's no concept of Windows' "Multiple Document Interface." These things are actually written into the OS X user interface guidelines. Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

Command+tab lets you switch aps instantly. Is that not fast enough for you?
That's fine for app switching, but if I wanted to "HIDE" all the crap behind Photoshop (for example), then I have to do that each time I switch back to Photoshop.
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steadyb

steadyb

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Posted
Originally posted by soundscape:

]That's fine for app switching, but if I wanted to "HIDE" all the crap behind Photoshop (for example), then I have to do that each time I switch back to Photoshop.

No you don't.

 

If you "hide" all the other apps you have open, and then you're in Photoshop... but then you want to go to another app that is open (but hidden), just command+tab to go back to that app. When you want to go back to Photoshop, you can either hide the one other app you're on, or command+tab back to Photoshop.

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steadyb

steadyb

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Look, don't want to start a fight here (even if my other posts seem like it ;) ), all I'm saying is just a couple key commands can accomplish everything in the scenario you describe in no time at all.

 

command+H = hide app

 

option+command+H = hide others

 

command+ tab lets you switch apps

 

Select a file or folder located on the Desktop

Quickly type the first few lettters of its name

 

Select an adjacent file or folder

Use the Up, Down, Left and Right arrows

 

Toggle Selected Document Name Edit

Return / Enter

 

Get Info

Command-I

 

Get Info in floating window

Command-Option-I

 

Trash the selected file or folder

Command-Delete

 

Force-empty the trash

Option-Command-Shift-Delete

 

Open a selected folder or file

Command-Down Arrow

 

Launch a selected application

Command-Down Arrow

 

Create a new empty folder

Command-Shift-N

 

 

Plus, there are things regarding drag and dropping things between apps and folders in OSX that you sipmly cannot do in Windows.

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davorp

davorp

Posted
Posted
No matter what software you are running on the regular basis on your Mac, it is strongly recommended to installing all the updates when your computer prompts you to do so. The point of installing system updates is improving the operating system (Mac OS X) and those improvements would reflect on whole system performances. That would of course make Garage Band to work better and more stable. Do not ignore system updates on your mac. It's not a good thing to do.
Davor
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dp2

dp2

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by soundscape:

Originally posted by kanker, apparently:

They're not perfect. Just *generally* more user friendly.

Microsoft spends a lot of money on useability testing and has an enormous R&D spend too.

 

For me OS X loses major points because it doesn't have a good task-oriented UI and it's not designed to "HIDE" what's going on behind the current app--"maximize" isn't intended to necessarily maximize the window and there's no concept of Windows' "Multiple Document Interface." These things are actually written into the OS X user interface guidelines. Try running Photoshop, and oops, all the other windows are behind the palettes and document window and you have to go off and hit "hide others." What a PITA, especially when switching apps a lot.

 

Originally posted by Tom Fiala:

I use that "software update" menu about once a week. It's amazingly easy, compared to Windows updates.

 

Windows Update is a mess. Fortunately in Windows Vista the Web-based interface will be gone.

Not to turn this into a "my OS rocks; yours sucks" kind of rant, . . .

 

You state OSX isn't task-oriented. You're wrong. OSX is a variant of Unix; its kernel is based on the OSF mach kernel, and its userland environment is based on BSD. Stated another way, OSX has job control, multithreading (implemented via pthreads), and several other things that I could list in detail to demonstrate that OSX is highly task-oriented.

 

I believe Windows XP was the first of the MS OSes to use pthreads, but it doesn't do so natively. XP and all other Windows variants--except perhaps Vista--use Win32 threads. There's no concept of light-weight processes, :eek: so Win32 code does not schedule or scale as well in as many different environments as code running on OSX. :freak: I could get far more technical about this, since this is one of my specialties in IT--but I don't want to belabor my point. :D

 

Additionally, if you don't like the default behavior of Aqua (Apple's flagship GUI that ships with OSX), then you can customize it or you can opt to use another GUI instead--unlike in Windows. In case you didn't know, OSX 10.3.x (Panther) or higher also ship with X. A user can opt to run X on top of Aqua (just like a Windows user could run a X server like Exceed over Windows), run X instead of Aqua (unlike a Windows user who has no choice but to use the GUI that ships with Windows), run Aqua on top of X, install another GUI, or run GUI-less.

 

Your Photoshop example is also flawed. Just as there are hot-keys in Windows, there are keyboard short-cuts in OSX. There's a way to cycle through the tasks in OSX--just as there is in Windows. Believe it or not, that feature has always been available in every Mac OS. :cool: Neverthless, that's not the only way to do it. Again, unlike XP--at least without using one of the Aqua skins for XP--Aqua also allows a user to switch between tasks simply by clicking on the appropriate icon in the task bar. And if that weren't enough, there's also an equivalent to the Task Menu for OSX.

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dp2

dp2

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Gangsu,

 

soundscape was right about one thing though; I don't recommend turning on the auto update feature. I'd recommend updating your environment periodically (perhaps once per week or once per month). Before you allow any update to be installed on your machine, first read up on it to see what it does, why you need it, and how others' experiences have been with it. For example, I recall that Apple tried to push out a useless patch for iTunes (the one after 6.0.5); that patch broke things for lots of users, because it "silently" disabled the ability for one to copy songs from one's iPod to one's computer. Another patch for iTunes (I don't remember which one) "silently" added some DRM junk to the software which added various artifacts to various songs manipulated via iTunes.

 

Anyway, my point is be careful, make frequent backups, and enjoy your Mac. :)

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dp2

dp2

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Posted
Originally posted by soundscape:

OK... problem somewhat improved!

 

http://www.proteron.com/liteswitchx/

 

LiteSwitch X - 'Single Application Mode'

 

No more 'HIDE OTHERS'!

Actually, that isn't an application switcher; rather, it's a keyboard switcher application. One uses it to switch the keyboard layout of one's computer from a language (like Russian) to English or vice versa.

 

Nevertheless, OSX already has pretty decent support for this--even for Far East Asian and Semetic languages (which are usually tougher to "get it right" because of all of the non-Latin character sets and mappings; and the right-to-left or top-to-bottom layout of the characters on the display).

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soundscape

soundscape

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by dp2:

Originally posted by soundscape:

OK... problem somewhat improved!

 

http://www.proteron.com/liteswitchx/

 

LiteSwitch X - 'Single Application Mode'

 

No more 'HIDE OTHERS'!

Actually, that isn't an application switcher; rather, it's a keyboard switcher application. One uses it to switch the keyboard layout of one's computer from a language (like Russian) to English or vice versa.
Uhh... :confused:

 

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2552/liteswitchik6.png

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gangsu

gangsu

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2/ I've successfully registered a Vienna Key.

 

Where should I specify my harp library be stored? A new Applications folder? (Don't tell me to store it on a separate fast hard drive. I'm stupidly determined to make it work with what I've got)

 

:wave:

"........! Try to make It..REAL! compared to what? ! ! ! " - BOPBEEPER
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