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Flash 'Piles' Demo
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Regarding my earlier comment about "piles" going off the top of the screen. If they made the pile expand towards you, then some of my folders would knock me off my chair
PS. To those who questioned my earlier spelling of haemorrhoids. Yes I am British. I even have a rubber on the end of my pencil
to those who are unsure as to how the files will arrange themselves, note that panther is said to use extensive 'metadata'. this is similar to how iTunes can sort your files by bitrate, filesize etc, but it will be in the finder. piles are simply like 'smart playlists' in itunes, that accumulate and remove files according to criteria you set for each pile. imagine a pile with your "25 most used documents" or "Jpegs larger than 100kb, created after 12/03/03, used in the last month" etc. imagine the possibilities.
now, i'm sure most of you don't use your smart playlists in itunes very often, but such a feature in the finder will have a different order of functionality.
finally, to those worried about expanded views of piles going off the screen, just imagine that only 1 file is fully spaced out between the others, and the distance between floating icons decreases as you look above/below your cursor. imagine each pile is like a dock with magnification turned on, only vertical, and the sizes of the icons don't change, only the distance between them.
to those worried about older computers having difficulties with previewing the files within a pile, just imagine that each image has its preview BUILT IN to the icon. currently, for most images, the previews are generated 'on the fly' in Jaguar. this eats up processing power and places more demands on the hard drive, taking more time. this would cause piles to 'stick' when they are opening. if every file (ie images, text) had a small preview BUILT IN to the icon (or into its associated data), this would allow much faster performance. imagine that whenever a file is created, this preview is saved along with it. this can also apply to movies with a few seconds of a low res (128 by 128 max) preview movie. sure, this will add a little to file size (a REALLY tiny bit) but it will be worth it. of course, as in the current finder in column view, you will be able to see the full, larger previews such as movies at full size (in piles, when your cursor actally passes over each file), and this information will have to be taken from the file itself (on the fly). but the icon image/movie previews will be prerrecorded.
on another note, what do you think about putting more maginification in the finder in general? like waving your cursor over some small icons in a finder window and having them magnify?
now, i'm sure most of you don't use your smart playlists in itunes very often, but such a feature in the finder will have a different order of functionality.
finally, to those worried about expanded views of piles going off the screen, just imagine that only 1 file is fully spaced out between the others, and the distance between floating icons decreases as you look above/below your cursor. imagine each pile is like a dock with magnification turned on, only vertical, and the sizes of the icons don't change, only the distance between them.
to those worried about older computers having difficulties with previewing the files within a pile, just imagine that each image has its preview BUILT IN to the icon. currently, for most images, the previews are generated 'on the fly' in Jaguar. this eats up processing power and places more demands on the hard drive, taking more time. this would cause piles to 'stick' when they are opening. if every file (ie images, text) had a small preview BUILT IN to the icon (or into its associated data), this would allow much faster performance. imagine that whenever a file is created, this preview is saved along with it. this can also apply to movies with a few seconds of a low res (128 by 128 max) preview movie. sure, this will add a little to file size (a REALLY tiny bit) but it will be worth it. of course, as in the current finder in column view, you will be able to see the full, larger previews such as movies at full size (in piles, when your cursor actally passes over each file), and this information will have to be taken from the file itself (on the fly). but the icon image/movie previews will be prerrecorded.
on another note, what do you think about putting more maginification in the finder in general? like waving your cursor over some small icons in a finder window and having them magnify?
I'm curious about this: DO people actually use smart playlists? I personally can't imagine life without them!
I'm a HUGE fan of iTunes, so much so that I rate it as one of the top 5 reasons for people to buy a Mac - on the topic of Smart Playlists, I found these actually changed my relationship to my music collection. So I'm surprised to hear "I'm sure most of you don't use your smart playlists"...
I think that there is a point at which over-abusing Quartz Extreme capabilities crosses over from "cool & useful" to "what's the point of that?". I can't help but feeling that if everything in the Finder had rollover magnification, you'd just get seasick sitting at your machine.
As for the points about "why the desktop metaphor"? I understand where you're coming from, but though a Gibson-esque version of cyberspace works great in movies/novels it is ultimately not very intuitive.
I wonder how many of us looking at vertically scrolling code would, in fact, be able to just see blonde, brunette, redhead...
This is a brilliant idea
First, let me add my kudos on a nice demo...even if what Apple winds up implementing is very different, that little demo has really helped me picture how this would be useful.
In my experience, many intelligent and creative people are apparently very disorganized. Look at the desks or workshops of people you admire...frequently they appear to be very messy (stick your nose in the door of almost any molecular biology research lab, and you'll see a new definition of chaos). However, there is often a subtle underlying 'organic' organization that is apparent only to the occupant, and which allows them to find what they need in the apparent chaos with ease.
I think the 'pile' metaphor will be of enormous value to those of us who use that approach. Especially if we can use the BeOSish database filesystem to define automagically generated 'piles': "Things I've accessed in the past 2 hours" "DNA sequence files from the past two weeks" "PDFs downloaded from XYZ" "Email with attachments", "Microscope data files bigger than X made more recently than Y" etc.
This feature alone makes Panther look like $130 well-spent.
Cheers
First, let me add my kudos on a nice demo...even if what Apple winds up implementing is very different, that little demo has really helped me picture how this would be useful.
In my experience, many intelligent and creative people are apparently very disorganized. Look at the desks or workshops of people you admire...frequently they appear to be very messy (stick your nose in the door of almost any molecular biology research lab, and you'll see a new definition of chaos). However, there is often a subtle underlying 'organic' organization that is apparent only to the occupant, and which allows them to find what they need in the apparent chaos with ease.
I think the 'pile' metaphor will be of enormous value to those of us who use that approach. Especially if we can use the BeOSish database filesystem to define automagically generated 'piles': "Things I've accessed in the past 2 hours" "DNA sequence files from the past two weeks" "PDFs downloaded from XYZ" "Email with attachments", "Microscope data files bigger than X made more recently than Y" etc.
This feature alone makes Panther look like $130 well-spent.
Cheers
Let's not worry about the processor requirements of the new interfaces we are discussing, because
(1) Any new features will probably be optional, like dock magnification. You'll turn the features on only if your CPU can accomodate them.
(2) Even if only the newest Macs can support the new features efficiently, most of us will upgrade to a year-2003-or-later Mac eventually, as the Macs we have now get more and more out of date. So we all win in the end.
(3) Even if only the newest Macs can support the new features efficiently, it'll sell new Macs, Apple will keep making money, and we'll all benefit from their other innovations.
(4) We're just speculating, after all. We should let our minds be free from "programmer" issues like implementation and optimization.
(1) Any new features will probably be optional, like dock magnification. You'll turn the features on only if your CPU can accomodate them.
(2) Even if only the newest Macs can support the new features efficiently, most of us will upgrade to a year-2003-or-later Mac eventually, as the Macs we have now get more and more out of date. So we all win in the end.
(3) Even if only the newest Macs can support the new features efficiently, it'll sell new Macs, Apple will keep making money, and we'll all benefit from their other innovations.
(4) We're just speculating, after all. We should let our minds be free from "programmer" issues like implementation and optimization.
Originally posted by StuPid QPid
...I even have a rubber on the end of my pencil
Well you just keep your rubber on your pencil, and your pencil in your pocket.
I don't wanna see it!
That goes for your "piles" too...
Originally posted by StuPid QPid
To those who questioned my earlier spelling of haemorrhoids. Yes I am British. I even have a rubber on the end of my pencil
This sounds like a comedy routine I heard once, I think it was Bill Maher (sp?). Have you ever asked someone to knock you up in the morning?
I hear the Nova example all the time (for example in my marketing class) but, really, too much was made of it. The same word "nova" is used in Spanish, and in fact this astronomical term has a Latin root. Yes, some comedian in the Latin world came up with the "No va" pun, but it's just that, a pun.
I mean, my grandpa had a Nova (man, those cars sucked), and I never once heard anyone in Puerto Rico ever bring up the whole "no va" thing.
scriptable I hope
I would use "piles" as I am one disorganized dude. Still, I would like to have the Finder Find menu auto create a script from a search to create an alias pile on my desktop based on various parameters.
example:
create a pile untitled of application appleworks all from 10 days ago.
add to pile untitled of application photoshop .jpg greater than 1.5 MB
You get the drift
I would use "piles" as I am one disorganized dude. Still, I would like to have the Finder Find menu auto create a script from a search to create an alias pile on my desktop based on various parameters.
example:
create a pile untitled of application appleworks all from 10 days ago.
add to pile untitled of application photoshop .jpg greater than 1.5 MB
You get the drift
If this feature becomes a part of the OS that is optional to the user, then by all means, it's a wonderful thing.
Some people don't like it and won't use it because it's not they way they like to keep things "organized."
Some people will like it and use it because it IS they way they usually keep things "organized."
I, for one, would LOVE to have multiple screen shots or downloads all "pile up" in one place on the desktop instead of popping up all over the place. So much of my PHYSICAL desk consists of piles, but again, it's organized from MY perspective, the only one that matters.
Computers at their best try to emulate our work area and offer organizational look-and-feels to what we're used to...File Folders, Files, Folders within Folders, just like the real world. Until now, the "real" world wasn't well represented on the "desktop"...I may have a drawer full of organized folders and files IN my desk, but the deskTOP is where I keep things I'm currently working on, and it's usually a mess of piles, not laid out, side by side files...I'd simply not have the room. With this, its more "representational" and I liked the demo very, very much...even though it may not be even close to what the end product may be, it does give a beautiful representation of the concept. (thank you for creating that!)
Some people don't like it and won't use it because it's not they way they like to keep things "organized."
Some people will like it and use it because it IS they way they usually keep things "organized."
I, for one, would LOVE to have multiple screen shots or downloads all "pile up" in one place on the desktop instead of popping up all over the place. So much of my PHYSICAL desk consists of piles, but again, it's organized from MY perspective, the only one that matters.
Computers at their best try to emulate our work area and offer organizational look-and-feels to what we're used to...File Folders, Files, Folders within Folders, just like the real world. Until now, the "real" world wasn't well represented on the "desktop"...I may have a drawer full of organized folders and files IN my desk, but the deskTOP is where I keep things I'm currently working on, and it's usually a mess of piles, not laid out, side by side files...I'd simply not have the room. With this, its more "representational" and I liked the demo very, very much...even though it may not be even close to what the end product may be, it does give a beautiful representation of the concept. (thank you for creating that!)
