cocoaforge

After spending time in Tiger I'm starting to re-look at some of idea that people threw around about things that Tiger allowed us to do. We all know we need to stay panther friendly, but here are things that I believe could be useful (in comparison to just being cool).

Spotlight: ok I am taking about this mostly because people talked about this one the most. Personally I think it's not that useful. I can't think of any situation that I would not know what kind of thing i needed before I searched, but after it turns out I was looking for a chat log. If someone is looking for info from a chat, it stands to reason that people will go directly for the log viewer. But having a more enhanced search in the viewer and having spotlight know what to do with log file could be a good thing, just not on the top of the priorities.

Dashboard: This is already being worked on, and not by the official developers. I still argue that the widget should be a simple sign on/sign off/away control. I made photoshop mockup/interface graphics for what I think it should look like a long time ago. Ok enough talk about something that already exists.

Automator: Adium is scriptable, and it make the app so much more powerful. Automator actions would be easy (I think) to make for anyone familiar with applescrrpit and has a copy of xcode. Some actions to send files that you have done stuff with, or to rename aliases, or even simple stuff like sign off and on.

dotMac Sync: If I could pick one tiger related feature to add, it would be this. To have .mac syncing sync adium info. I'm not sure which things would be most useful to sync. I defiantly think that aliases/meta contacts is one of the most important. This is because this info changes constantly as you add people to your contacts list, and it's easy to forget screen names if your used to always seeing real names. Logs may be useful, but also might be too big. Your settings might be nice too, but often times people will want to have different setting for different computers, but still want to sync aliases/metas.

I'm just getting the conversation going.

wunderwood wrote:Automator: Adium is scriptable, and it make the app so much more powerful. Automator actions would be easy (I think) to make for anyone familiar with applescrrpit and has a copy of xcode. Some actions to send files that you have done stuff with, or to rename aliases, or even simple stuff like sign off and on.

While Adium is scriptable, some of the commands are broken and nothing's very finalized yet. Of all the ones on the list, I personally think this is the most important (.mac isn't that big, whereas everyone has all of the other things you listed installed if they have Tiger), as you can do some pretty awesome stuff with it.

But that will have to wait for a bit anyway, to get a more finalized Adium release in which there are more set (and functional) commands.

To get Applescript working fully would be fantastic.

If the log viewer used Spotlight in Tiger, would it get rid of that painfully long wait when it's opened and indexes the logs? It's shorter than it used to be, but when I open the viewer I'm usually needing a quick result, and it's frustrating. How difficult would that be, anyway?

.Mac sync sounds like a great idea - I'd love to be able to sync my Adium info. Chat logs would be good, too! Although, I don't have .Mac, but I would still be enthusiastic about it as a feature.

Apple builds in cool backup features to the OS but you can only use them with the stupid .Mac. If you want to do a backup feature do your own thing instead of supporting .Mac and cutting everyone else out of the feature.

googolplex wrote:Apple builds in cool backup features to the OS but you can only use them with the stupid .Mac. If you want to do a backup feature do your own thing instead of supporting .Mac and cutting everyone else out of the feature.

Someone is angry. Their is nothing wrong with adding feature that not everyone may be able to use. We just added unified toolbars, only tiger users can use that. Heck you have to have a mac to even use Adium. I know thats extreme, but their is nothing wrong with adding features like this. Also I think you are misunderstanding the concept of .mac sync. It's not something you can rely do another way. It's not for back up, it's for keeping things the same on multiple computers. So that if someone adds a alias to a screen name or makes some meta contacts, they can go to their other computer, and the screen names show up named and grouped properly.

My point is that if a feature has higher requirements than rest of the program, thats not a reason not to add it (assuming their is no good universal way to add it), it just means it's a little bit lower of the priority list.

By the way the backup software you get with .mac is just a normal backup program, its different than .mac sync. If you need a backup program but don't have .mac, than just get a 3rd party one.

However, syncing should be a basic feature of the OS. Zero configuration networking + syncing could make a home network into an awesome, awesome thing... yet I have to pay a yearly fee, and then send my data out to the internet and then back in again to sync within my own home?

im still trying to figure out why i would need .mac to store all my meta contact details on.. if its that big of a deal, copy your adium 2.0 settings and mail it to yourself, extract and apply for free!

Network syncing, that would be cool. Their should be like a sync pane in system prefs where you can set up your computer to sync over .mac or bonjour. And if you build syncing into an app it will automatically be available to sync in any way you want. Because .mac sync is still useful for people that want to sync computers not in the same place (like work and home), but most users don't have .mac and do have computers in the same place.

It also looks like a lot of the chat services are starting to support server side aliases, but that will not work for meta contacts, especial metas with multiple services.

SuperJeremy3000 wrote:im still trying to figure out why i would need .mac to store all my meta contact details on.. if its that big of a deal, copy your adium 2.0 settings and mail it to yourself, extract and apply for free!

Because they change a lot. Without your aliases and metas its easy to forget who is who and which screen names go together. I know I'm always lost when I'm not at my own computer. Copying the application support folder is douse the trick, but what's great about syncing is it's automatic. This is a good thing because metas and aliases change all the time. At the moment you see "james" at your main computer and lvgravs267, foodth4, and griv456 on all other computers. I just want to see james displayed on all my machines, because I have no clue who lvgravs267 is, especially when the next person on my list is grve890.
(all names and screen names are fictional)

Why are their so many .mac haters.

evands wrote:yet I have to pay a yearly fee, and then send my data out to the internet and then back in again to sync within my own home?

Of course you do! A $100 yearly .mac subscription is essential!

If you don't believe me, present yourself as a novice computer user at an Apple store and start purchasing an ibook. I'm willing to bet that the Apple employees will convince you that your computer will not function correctly without .mac.

And being a novice user I'm sure you'll have that .mac subscription long after you've chipped the letters off your 3rd replacement keyboard.

/Now look who's angry

Adam Iser wrote:

evands wrote:yet I have to pay a yearly fee, and then send my data out to the internet and then back in again to sync within my own home?

Of course you do! A $100 yearly .mac subscription is essential!

If you don't believe me, present yourself as a novice computer user at an Apple store and start purchasing an ibook. I'm willing to bet that the Apple employees will convince you that your computer will not function correctly without .mac.

And being a novice user I'm sure you'll have that .mac subscription long after you've chipped the letters off your 3rd replacement keyboard.

/Now look who's angry

They're slippery in there. I have seen exactly what you just said happen more than once. It gets relly bad when they pull out the $30 off .mac if you buy it at the same time as your computer.

On the flip-side, I love the service. I use almost every service they offer. To me it's worth the $100 a year, and im a collage student, I don't have much money.

(edited by moderator jstamos for abuse of the word "their" as a replacement for "there" and "they're")