Re: Why no 'Cut' in OSX
- From: Andrew Collier <spambucket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:33:46 +0000
In article <BF9C26E6.1009E%stimpy1997uk@xxxxxxxxx>,
Stimpy <stimpy1997uk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> One thing that 'really* bugs me... There's no 'cut' command in the Finder
> any more.
>
> My 1985 copy of Human Interface Guidelines (ah for the days when Apple gave
> these away for the asking)
Still do... if you installed the developer tools you'll have it already
at:
file:///Developer/ADC%20Reference%20Library/documentation/UserExperience/
Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000957
> talks extensively about the behaviour of the
> 'cut' command; so when/why did it get dropped?
In the Finder? That would surprise me a lot. I don't think the Finder
ever did have a cut command for files (it will exist in the menu, since
you'd be able to cut text while editing the filename). As I recall,
copying and pasting of files was only introduced with MacOS X, and I
think it's one of the bits of interface from Windows which didn't
deserve to be duplicated.
One of the things that the HI guidelines certainly does spend a lot of
time discussing, is the value of consistency between applications. So
cut in one application should mean the same as cut in another - in an
HIG compliant application, cut means that the selection is immediately
removed from the working view and stored in a temporary holding area
(the clipboard). If you "cut" a file in Windows, it stays exactly where
it is until you select paste.
Even the Finder's copy and paste is inconsistent with other
applications, although the differences are more subtle:
If something is selected when you paste, the contents of the clipboard
should replace the selection. In the finder, the selection stays there
and the clipboard is added to the same window (unless you're in column
view, in which case the paste command is disabled (unless what you've
selected was a folder, in which case the clipboard goes into that
folder).). You can also overwrite files if you paste something with the
same name (unless you're pasting into the same directory you copied
from, in which case it will automatically rename the duplicated file).
When you copy something onto the clipboard in most applications, it
takes a snapshot from that point of time and stores it. You can then
edit the original (or even delete it) and when you paste, you get
another copy of the old version. But in the Finder, if you change the
filename of the copied file, you can't paste it at all afterwards. And
if some program changes a file (or you add a file to a copied folder),
when you paste it duplicates the latest version.
Andrew
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