The column view - love it or leave it?

[TommyWillB]

Besides showing you my toolbar, I've attached 3 screen grabs (one altered in Photoshop) to help me articulate my ideas about column view:

1-bad.pdf: This is the default view showing my home directory. My question to you is... what path am I in? There is no way to "see" that because the "Users" folder is at the bottom of the column an unviewable.

2-better.pdf: To see the "Users" folder, I need to scroll the center columen. It would be ideal if Apple show us this by default without my needing to scroll. That way I'd be able to quickly see my path.

3-ideal.pdf: Even better than #2 would be to restore the use of the "shelf" (a.k.a. toolbar) to the way it was in Rhapsody/Next. What it did in column view was give you icons on the shelf showing your FULL path. Clicking on any of the folders navigated you back "up" the tree.

(#3 is my quick attempt at visualizing this. I'm sure racerX could post us a real Rhaposody/Next screen grab to illustrate this better.)

[TommyWillB]

Here is 2-better.pdf...

[TommyWillB]

Here is 3-ideal.pdf...

[twister]

Column view rocks. I know, a long time ago, when i first heard about 10. i was really worried. I didn't like the looks of it. Now i love it.

Twister

[RacerX]

Originally posted by habilis
... Clearly Apple isn't known for the abundance of options it gives to its users but couldn't they have included a "classic view" along with columns?

... And finally, Microsoft has had the columns view for the last 10 years along with the Classic OS9 style. Why are we stepping back in time? And why is Apple acting more and more like Microsoft, and Microsoft acting more and more like Apple?

Maybe I'm missing something here. What is "classic view"? I've been using the Mac OS for more than 15 years, but I'm not quite sure what your talking about. In the "Classic" Mac OS you had three options: Icons, Buttons and List. In Mac OS X you have three options: Columns, Icons and List. Does this mean you want the "Buttons" view back?

And as has been known by most and talked about at length many times, the "columns" view is not like Microsoft's Windows Explorer. It is not a copy of Microsoft's Windows Explorer. In fact, seeing as "columns" view originated at NeXT back in 1987 and NeXT is now part of Apple, Apple is not copying anything from anyone. They have the full right to use this view without having anyone trying to say they are copying from some other company... least of all Microsoft.

Columns have been a constant in every version of the NeXT OS (NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP), Rhapsody and every version of Mac OS X (including all the developer previews, even the ones before Aqua). Other than the two column view in open/save dialogs, no one is forcing you to use columns any more than you were force to use the classic "Buttons" view you seem to be missing. Both the "Icons" and "List" views still remain (actually, they were there in both the NeXT OS and Rhapsody also).

As for a third party coming up with "Buttons" view, I don't think there has really been enough of a demand for it.

[edX]

well, i know i'm talking about the open and save dialogue boxes when i say i lke column view. i wouldn't use it for my HD windows for several reasons, just one being that i am more visually oriented. but like you pointed out RacerX, there are options to change for the HD view.

[RacerX]

Originally posted by TommyWillB
(#3 is my quick attempt at visualizing this. I'm sure racerX could post us a real Rhaposody/Next screen grab to illustrate this better.)

It'll take me a while for the NeXT shot, I don't have any NeXT systems up and running right now.

Here is a few views from Rhapsody (it used an uncustomizable toolbar like Mac OS X PB had to some degree, I usually had that hidden):

[RacerX]

And here is a few views from Mac OS X DP2: