[muglo] Why is the OS so clumsy?
- From: Don Green Dragon <fergdc@xxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:45:19 -0700
Hi all,
First, a more accurate 'Subject:' line might be "Why is this user so clumsy?"
However, .....
I've had an iMac for nine months now, and during that time I've learned as
little as possible about OS X and most of its application programs. But every
now and then I run into something trivial operation that I want to perform, and
end up performing absurd gymnastiques. Here follows an example:
Preparing a Playlist for Burning
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I had not planned to burn a collection of songs to a CD with the iMac since I
had done this before on my Amiga, and assumed that I would recall how to
prepare the burn. So I burned some 15 tracks to a CD as .AIFF files, and then
decided to check it out on the iMac. On the Amiga, everything was fine.
The iMac did not recognize the files as .AIFF guys and claimed they were "Unix
executable files." Also, when I tried to use iTunes to play any one of them,
iTunes did nothing, but the OS opened a bash shell and spit out some
information about the file.
Recognizing that the original AIFF files did NOT include the suffix .aiff in
their filename, and knowing that some applications require an appropriate
suffix, I decided to add the suffix .aiff to one of the files and see if that
made a difference. Suppose one of the files was labelled 'Song9' without the
quotes. So I wanted to change the filename 'Song9' to 'Song9.aiff'. I had
transferred all the 15 tracks on the CD into a directory:
~/Documents/Junk/Prog3
so one of the files within 'Prog3' was 'Song9'.
How does one change the filename? Damned if I could see anything that would
apply. Yes, I clicked on that icon which has the popup explanation "Perform
tasks with selected item" but nothing there applies to renaming a file, or, if
there was, I did not recognize it.
Eventually, I opened a bash shell and used the mv command (move or rename,
depending on syntax) to add the suffix to 'Song9'. Upon doing so, iTunes was
happy to play 'Song9.aiff'. iTunes is incapable of recognizing an .aiff file!
and REQUIRERS that the suffix .aiff be included? Sheeeesh! So using mv I
renamed all 15 tracks, and then iTunes would play them all. So here is the
first question:
Q1: Is there a simple was of changing the name of a file in a directory?
In the Mac world, I'm guessing that using the bash shell is not regarded as
'simple'. And, an associated question!
Q2: Is there some simple way to change the name of a directory which does not
involve all that ridiculous clicking?
Sometimes the clicks work --- though impossibly clumsily --- and at other times
they bring no response and a name change is not possible, or, so it seems?
Repairing a Track
+++++++++++++++++
Thereupon, I burned the 15 tracks to a CD using iTunes. Upon checking the
tracks, I found that one track had some objectionable noise on it, let's say it
was 'Song9.aiff'. So I deleted 'Song9' from the playlist Prog3,
which, thanks to <Edit -> Delete> was easy. Also, deleted 'Song9.aiff' from the
directory <~/Documents/Junk/Prog3> and then went to the original music CD and
copied the original version of 'Song9.aiff' into <~/Documents/Junk/Prog3>.
However, the original name was <9 Audio Track.aiff>, so I changed that to
'Song9.aiff' --- for reasons that will remain a mystery ;-) --- using the bash
shell and mv.
Finally --- at least I thought 'finally' --- I dragged the icon for
'Song9.aiff' from <~/Documents/Junk/Prog3> into the playlist Prog3. However,
when 'Song9.aiff' appeared in the tracklist, it was listed as 'Song9 1'. Yes,
that is the space character between '9' and '1'. Who ordered that name change?
Not me! The 'new' version of 'Song9.aiff' played nicely without the earlier
noise problem.
Checking back in <~/Documents/Junk/Prog3> I noted that the file 'Song9.aiff'
has thankfully not had a name change, so the addition of "<space>1" must be
some quirk of iTunes.
Checking the New Disc
+++++++++++++++++++++
It is fine, the previous noise has disappeared, so I'm happy. However, the CD
is named 'Prog3' and that is not what I wanted, but that's the price of being a
novice with iTunes. Of course, it would never occur to Mac programmers that a
used might want a different title for the disc than that of the playlist.
For the moment, I'll resist the urge to launch into a rant about the Finder!!!!
Now I'm waiting for the simple explanation, as to how an intelligent Mac user
would have proceeded.
Don Green Dragon
fergdc@xxxxxxx
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