Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!dh07+
From: dh07+@andrew.cmu.edu (David Hairston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re^3: finder irritations
Message-ID: <oZDvf3200WB79Bw0U1@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 21 Oct 89 00:39:31 GMT
Organization: Electrical and Comp. Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 46


[ddgg0881@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu re-writes:]
>>>I have [an] irritation when using the finder:
>>>You have two folders open and you want to transfer or
>>>copy a file from one to the other. You click on the file
>>>you want to move and then its window comes to the front
>>>which totally obliterates your view of the destination folder.
>>>Yuck! it would have been easier to use DOS or UNIX.
.
<< [RearWindow init and DiskTop cdev recommended, stuff deleted]
.
>When I wrote the original question I was hoping that someone would
>point out some simple solution that I didn't know about because I
>haven't read all the tip books. This seems like such a basic operation
>that I find it amazing that Apple hasn't bothered to fix up the problem.
.
umm, if it ain't broke don't fix it ...
.
>Some people told me that I simply wasn't managing my windows correctly.
>These people must know about something I don't know about. If the source
>folder and the destination folder are both 4 or 5 levels deep you've, got
>the desktop covered before you even begin the copy or move operation.
>Again the whole operation could have been done in DOS or UNIX before
>you even begin on the Mac. My purpose though is not to dump on the Mac.
.
but apparently dumping on the Mac isn't entirely out of the question
either. in "command-line interfaces" there is at least the risk of
typos as you begin to specify files/folders 4 or 5 levels deep. this
is also very annoying! of course, you could "cd" successively to each
directory along one of the paths (with the potential typo problem) but
i don't see any win there.

on the mac, file copying/moving is almost too simple.  even with 10
folder windows open in the finder on a macplus screen, rounding up the
needed files from the source window (appropriately active in front) and
moving them to some other folder (all you need to do is hit a pixel in
that window) is childs' play.  window management is the key here, not
all windows need to be the size of a 3x5 index card. look at ResEdit
for a clue as to how to handle window placement for successive
directories.  using such a scheme it is trivial to locate and relocate
files, effectively. perhaps a simple rule or one-liner is needed here:

to move files: isolate the destination folder first, then open the source.

  -dave-
hairston@henry.ece.cmu.edu