Path Finder bugs & feature requests

[bgolder]

Hi - I haven't registered this software yet as I'm not sure yet...a few problems:

1) First off, I would have searched the Path Finder help for answers to my questions before posting here, but the search field in the Path Finder help window doesn't work.

2) Is there any way to make "A Better Finder Rename" work with Path Finder? I use it all the time to rename large numbers of files. I see ABFR in the Path Finder contextual menu, but it does nothing. Would that require a modification of ABFR? Could you contact them and ask them about making ABFR compatible with Path Finder?

3) I'm surprised at how elegant the whole design of Path Finder is, and yet how utterly featureless the Path Finder desktop is. The biggest annoyance is the lack of a "snap to grid" feature for Path Finder desktop icons. I would expect Path Finder to have a grid, and better than OS X (ie-tighter and/or more adjustable grid)

4) When copying files to a network volume that only allows 31 characters in a filename, if I drag a file that has more than 31 characters, Path Finder fails to copy the file but displays no error message indicating that the copy did not occur. Very bad bug.

5) Resizing the info portion of the preview pane while a media file is being previewed causes playback to stop. Annoying, but not a big deal.

6) Clicking the "Volumes" or "Processes" label in the Process drawer closes the process drawer, which is unintuitive considering that clicking the "standard" label in the shelf gives a popup menu. Also it feels a bit cluttered overall having the process drawer stick out as a separate item next to the shelf. I would prefer the option of being able to display running apps and volumes in the shelf.

7) Popup menu buttons don't work very well (ie - the "Documents" and "Favorites" toolbar icons). A quick click and release on the little arrow does not display a sticky popup menu. You have to click, and let go just as the menu appears in order to have the menu "stick" and stay visible. If you release the mouse too soon, the menu disappears and/or the window jumps to the Documents/Favorites folder, and if you release the mouse too late, then you don't get a sticky menu - you have to hold the mouse down to continue displaying the menu.

8 ) Related to popup menu buttons - I would like a popup menu of "Running Applications". Then I wouldn't need a "Processes" window.

9) Overall, Path Finder actually feels a little slower than the Finder.

I love the combination of list view/column view in Path Finder -- that's the main reason I would buy this product...but it doesn't really seem to be able to truly replace the Finder, and the Path Finder desktop is sorely lacking. I wish someone would put as much thought into an improved desktop. I've always wanted a desktop that would let me do these things:

-select multiple files and "group" them, so that any future action (moving them around, copying them, etc) would happen to all of the files.
-a truly customizable desktop grid, where I could specify the # of rows/columns on the desktop
-desktop icons that showed other info in addition to the filename in multiple rows of closely spaced text
-a "preview in place", where I could just move my mouse over a desktop icon and I would see a small window or circular magnifying glass view into the actual file for certain file types (like Excel, MS Word, text, movie, picture files).

That's all for now!

[neilio]

1) First off, I would have searched the Path Finder help for answers to my questions before posting here, but the search field in the Path Finder help window doesn't work.
Yes, it's true. That's something that needs to be added for the next release.
2) Is there any way to make "A Better Finder Rename" work with Path Finder?
I've never used ABFR, but I'm guessing it requires Apple's Finder to work its magic. Have you asked the developer if they would add support for Path Finder? It usually helps if the request comes from a user, rather than us - us developers always have sneaky ulterior motives! :)

Seriously, though, if you make a request to ABFR they should be able to tell you if Path Finder compatibility is possible. If they need some changes in PF to support ABFR, get them to contact me directly: http://www.cocoatech.com/contact.php

4) When copying files to a network volume that only allows 31 characters in a filename, if I drag a file that has more than 31 characters, Path Finder fails to copy the file but displays no error message indicating that the copy did not occur. Very bad bug.
I'll pass this on to the developer to look at - I've never seen this, but then again I haven't tried copying to an older OS for quite some time.

5) Resizing the info portion of the preview pane while a media file is being previewed causes playback to stop. Annoying, but not a big deal.
Added to the to-do list.

6) Clicking the "Volumes" or "Processes" label in the Process drawer closes the process drawer, which is unintuitive considering that clicking the "standard" label in the shelf gives a popup menu.
Also on the the list.

7) Popup menu buttons don't work very well (ie - the "Documents" and "Favorites" toolbar icons). A quick click and release on the little arrow does not display a sticky popup menu.
Is there a reason why you would want the menu to persist? You can't drag and drop into it, after all, and it was designed to allow quick access to items in these folders, so the present behavior makes sense.

8 ) Related to popup menu buttons - I would like a popup menu of "Running Applications". Then I wouldn't need a "Processes" window.
Now on the list, though you can also get this from the Global Path Finder menu (right-side menu bar).

9) Overall, Path Finder actually feels a little slower than the Finder.
We're always trying to improve performance. The main disadvantage for us is that we do not have access to internal routines that Apple's Finder team uses to make the Finder fast. You could ask them to open up these to 3rd party developers like us, but I have a feeling they probably would say no. :)

Part of the continuing problem (and part of the reason we've moved up to OS 10.3 support only) is that there are always bugs and inefficiencies in Cocoa that we keep needing to work around. Text rendering is a good example - it's much faster in Panther, but it still sucks compared to Carbon text rendering... which slows down PF (and which is why the Finder is still a Carbon application).

We wrote our own version of text rendering for PF 3.1 to work around this. Hopefully you see our dilemma: we rely heavily on the OS, but the OS itself isn't always efficient. Things will continue to improve from version to version of PF, though!

I wish someone would put as much thought into an improved desktop. I've always wanted a desktop that would let me do these things:
The desktop and icon view is a priority on the to-do list, so rest assured that we're working on it. All of your suggestions are good ones and have been added to the list.

All I can say is that we're constantly improving and releasing new versions of Path Finder, so all logical suggestions will be implemented at some point. For an example of how much work we put into PF, take a look at Path Finder's changelog for the 2.x versions:

http://www.cocoatech.com/changelog.php

We're a small (two people) company, so if you like Path Finder and would like to support its development, do consider purchasing a license. We listen to our users and try to implement as much as humanly (and realistically) possible in each release.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

Neil

[bgolder]

Hi Neil. Thanks for the reply.

bgolder wrote:

7) Popup menu buttons don't work very well (ie - the "Documents" and "Favorites" toolbar icons). A quick click and release on the little arrow does not display a sticky popup menu.

Neil wrote:
Is there a reason why you would want the menu to persist? You can't drag and drop into it, after all, and it was designed to allow quick access to items in these folders, so the present behavior makes sense.


I like sticky menus simply because they are easier on my hands and consistent with the rest of the MacOS UI. If I want to take a moment to look at a menu, I prefer not to have to hold the mouse button down. I think the Path Finder popup menu buttons should have this behavior: if the user clicks on the folder icon portion of the icon, then the window jumps to the folder. If the user clicks on the little arrow, then a sticky menu appears. Also, I would like the popup menus to display hierarchical submenus of folder items within the menu so the user can navigate through them.

bgolder wrote:
4) When copying files to a network volume that only allows 31 characters in a filename, if I drag a file that has more than 31 characters, Path Finder fails to copy the file but displays no error message indicating that the copy did not occur. Very bad bug.

Neil wrote:
I'll pass this on to the developer to look at - I've never seen this, but then again I haven't tried copying to an older OS for quite some time.


In my case, this is happening with a network file server - a SnapServer.

One last thing I'm noticing - you know how the Finder in OS X is sometimes slow to update a currently displayed folder list when you copy an item into that folder, ie - you don't immediately see the item that you copied appear in the folder. Well, Path Finder is much slower than the Finder. If I copy an item into a folder, Path Finder sometimes won't display the item at all until I deselect and reselect the folder.

Question: I'm no expert by any stretch, but I was wondering if there could be an alternative approach to implementing some of the Path Finder functionality into the MacOS Finder. When the Finder creates a new window, it calls code to make a new window object, right? All the functionality for that new window is a sub-class of the window object. So, would it be possible to implement an alternative window class that would override the existing window class, and which implemented some of the functionality of the combined column/list view that Path Finder has, so that then when you made a new window in the Finder, it called that new alternative window class? The combined column/list view functionality is the primary reason for me to buy Path Finder, but it would be nice if I didn't have to run another application to get that functionality. Is it possible to override classes that the Finder uses and replace/enhance behavior directly within the Finder? Just curious. I would pay for that feature.

Thanks again for the replies!

Best,

Bryan