[muglo] Re: Why is the OS so clumsy?
- From: Dave Knight <dave@xxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:26:45 -0500
On 2011-02-25, at 6:45 PM, Don Green Dragon wrote:
> 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:
I guess Mac OS normally works this stuff out from something in an HFS resource
fork. A CDs ISO9660 file system has no such resource fork to contain that
information so it needs a hint. You might alternatively select a file, hit
command+i to open the Get Info dialog and set the application used to open this
file, thus creating that particular resource fork.
> Q1: Is there a simple was of changing the name of a file in a directory?
Select a file (click on it with a mouse), then...
Option 1. Hit return, you can now edit the filename
Option 2. Hit command+i, this opens the get info dialog, you can now edit the
filename under Name and Extension
> In the Mac world, I'm guessing that using the bash shell is not regarded as
> 'simple'. And, an associated question!
Most of the Mac users I know use the command line shell as their primary
interface to the file system, but then most of the Mac users I know moved to
the Mac when OS X made it the shiniest UNIX box available.
> Q2: Is there some simple way to change the name of a directory which does not
> involve all that ridiculous clicking?
1 click:
...on the directory icon, hit return, change the name, hit return again
0 clicks for extra credit:
command+space to open the Spotlight dialog, enter "terminal.app", hit return,
in your new terminal.app window type "mv /path/to/file /path/to/newfile", hit
return
> 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?
I have never heard of an instance where hitting return on a selected file (that
you have permission to modify) in the Finder didn't allow editing of its name.
> 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.
I'd guess that when you opened the first copy of Song9.aiff in iTunes it did
it's thing of discretely making a copy in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/, then
you added that to a playlist, then you deleted from a playlist (but not
entirely from the library, also telling iTunes to trash the original file),
then you introduced a new version of the file - with the same name as one which
already existed in the library, so iTunes resolved the potential conflict by
adding the newcomer with a slightly modified name.
> 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.
When you can easily change the name of the playlist why would this even start
to begin to be the merest hint of a problem?
Playlists are ephemeral, create a new one with the name you want your cd to
have, drag all the songs in, burn the list, delete the list.
You started out with a CD you produced on a computer that went out of
production 14 years ago. Then with an admitted lack of enthusiasm for learning
the Mac way you managed for the most part to do what you wanted to do. I'd say
on that evidence that the Mac programmers have done rather well.
> For the moment, I'll resist the urge to launch into a rant about the
> Finder!!!!
Well, everyone has to do that.
> Now I'm waiting for the simple explanation, as to how an intelligent Mac user
> would have proceeded.
---
Manage your account options at //www.freelists.org/list/muglo
Other related posts:
