Best Finder alternative

[dbrewood]

For me I’m loving Qspace over Forklift because of:
- more frequent updates
- once I got used to the different way multi-tabs are handled I find it more useful
- many more options allowing it to tailored exactly how I want it
- better archive handling
Those are the main reasons I guess.

 

[MacGizmo]

can dfx access icloud drive and treat it like local macos folder?

The answer to your question is yes.

The explanation:
Default Folder X (DFX) is just a File Import/Export/Save/Save As dialog box utility (at its core), so if the app you happen to be in at any given moment can access iCloud Drive in a dialog box, then yes, it works. I don't have a single app that I can think of that has file access dialog boxes that DFX doesn't work with (though I'm sure there are a few out there that exist).

 

[svenmany]

can dfx access icloud drive and treat it like local macos folder?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking with this since there are two interpretations of accessing iCloud drive.

All applications can access the iCloud folders on the Mac; those are in ~/Library/Mobile Documents (and possibly in ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, if you've chosen to sync those). Heck, you can even create a file in terminal and see it show up on the iCloud website. There is some subtlety to using those folders as an application developer, but it's probably pretty trivial. After manipulating the local iCloud folders, the Mac takes care of keeping them in sync with the iCloud server's contents. I suspect dfx just uses the local iCloud folders in this way.

I've not used any application which can directly access iCloud over the internet. QSpace and ForkLift can do such a thing with other cloud providers like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive, but not with iCloud.

 

[MacGizmo]

There seems to be some confusion about what Default Folder X (DFX) does. It's simply a File Dialog Box enhancement utility. It doesn't care WHERE a file is stored or saved... if there is a File Dialog Box, DFX works with it. This includes FTP sites (if they're mounted), Cloud folders, regular folders, etc.

 

[svenmany]

There seems to be some confusion about what Default Folder X (DFX) does. It's simply a File Dialog Box enhancement utility. It doesn't care WHERE a file is stored or saved... if there is a File Dialog Box, DFX works with it. This includes FTP sites (if they're mounted), Cloud folders, regular folders, etc.

Then I don't understand what you meant when you said that DFX doesn't work with QSpace. Is there some special QSpace file dialog box that disables DFX?

 

[MacGizmo]

Then I don't understand what you meant when you said that DFX doesn't work with QSpace. Is there some special QSpace file dialog box that disables DFX?

I should have been more clear. It's not that DFX doesn't work at all, but one of the most useful features of DFX doesn't work with QSpace.

It's hard to explain, but the Finder Window Click feature is what I'm talking about. Basically, when you're in an Open/Save File Dialog box you can hover over any Finder (or Forklift) window that is open to highlight it, then click on it to make it the active folder in the Open/Save Dialog box. It's fantastic for people who have multiple folders open in the Finder and navigating to them in a Dialog box is a pain because the folder(s) are buried deep in the file system.

There may be other features that don't work with QSpace, or that might be the only one that doesn't... but it's one of the top features that matter to me. It's probably DFX that needs updating (it had to be updated to work with Forklift 4), but it still precludes me from using QSpace.

 

[svenmany]

I should have been more clear. It's not that DFX doesn't work at all, but one of the most useful features of DFX doesn't work with QSpace.

It's hard to explain, but the Finder Window Click feature is what I'm talking about. Basically, when you're in an Open/Save File Dialog box you can hover over any Finder (or Forklift) window that is open to highlight it, then click on it to make it the active folder in the Open/Save Dialog box. It's fantastic for people who have multiple folders open in the Finder and navigating to them in a Dialog box is a pain because the folder(s) are buried deep in the file system.

There may be other features that don't work with QSpace, or that might be the only one that doesn't... but it's one of the top features that matter to me. It's probably DFX that needs updating (it had to be updated to work with Forklift 4), but it still precludes me from using QSpace.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. I guess DFX has a list of applications which it monitors for events and QSpace is not in that list. It might be trivial for them to add it.

 

[MacGizmo]

...It might be trivial for them to add it.

You're probably right. Forklift 4 didn't support this feature at first. I sent a bug report to both DFX's developer and filed one with BinaryNights as well.

As it happened, both released an update to their apps at the same time that said their update fixed the incompatibility (which it did). The problem for me is that I don't know which updated app actually fixed the problem or if it was something needed from both of them to get it to work.

In the end though, I'm a happy user of both apps and really have no specific, game-changing reason to leave Forklift. Though I can see that QSpace has a lot of customization and capability, and I'm sure it's a great app, Forklift does what I want it to do perfectly well. So that coupled with the possibility of losing some of the functionality of DFX by switching to QSpace keeps me from even giving it a thorough walk-through.