Finder (software)

The Finder is the default file manager and

graphical user interface shell used on all
Macintosh operating systems. Described
in its "About" window as "The Macintosh
Desktop Experience", it is responsible for
the launching of other applications, and for
the overall user management of files,
disks, and network volumes. It was
introduced with the first Macintosh
computer, and also exists as part of
GS/OS on the Apple IIGS. It was rewritten
completely with the release of Mac OS X in
2001.
 Finder

Screenshot of an OS X 10.10 Yosemite Finder

window, displaying files in Cover Flow view

Operating system Classic Mac OS,

macOS, GS/OS

Type File manager

Website support.apple.com
/HT201732,%20https:
//support.apple.com
/ru-ru/HT201732
In a tradition dating back to the Classic
Mac OS of the 1980s and 1990s, the
Finder icon is the smiling screen of a
computer, known as the Happy Mac logo.

Features
The Finder uses a view of the file system
that is rendered using a desktop metaphor;
that is, the files and folders are
represented as appropriate icons. It uses a
similar interface to Apple's Safari browser,
where the user can click on a folder to
move to it and move between locations
using "back" and "forward" arrow buttons.
Like Safari, the Finder uses tabs to allow
the user to view multiple folders; these
tabs can be pulled off the window to make
them separate windows. There is a
"favorites" sidebar of commonly used and
important folders on the left of the Finder
window.

The modern Finder uses macOS graphics

APIs to display previews of a range of files,
such as images, applications and PDF
files. The Quick Look feature allows users
to quickly examine documents and images
in more detail from the finder by pressing
the space bar without opening them in a
separate application. The user can choose
how to view files, with options such as
large icons showing previews of files, a list
with details such as date of last creation
or modification, a Gallery View (replacing
the previous Cover flow in macOS Mojave),
and a "column view" influenced by
macOS's direct ancestor NeXTSTEP.[1]

The modern Finder displays some aspects

of the file system outside its windows.
Mounted external volumes and disk image
files can be displayed on the desktop.
There is a trash can on the Dock in macOS,
to which files can be dragged to mark
them for deletion, and to which drives can
be dragged for ejection. When a volume
icon is being dragged, the Trash icon in the
Dock changes to an eject icon in order to
indicate this functionality. Finder can
record files to optical media on the
sidebar.[2]

From Yosemite onwards, the Finder also

contains official support for extensions,
allowing synchronization and cloud
storage applications such as Dropbox to
display sync status labels inside the Finder
display.[3]

The classic Mac OS Finder uses a spatial

metaphor quite different to the more
browser-like approach of the modern
macOS Finder.[4] In the classic Finder,
opening a new folder opens the location in
a new window: finder windows are 'locked'
so that they would only ever display the
contents of one folder. It also allows
extensive customization, with the user
being able to give folders custom icons
matching their content. This approach
emphasizes the different locations of files
within the operating system, but
navigating to a folder nested inside
multiple other folders fills the desktop with
a large number of windows that the user
may not wish to have open.[5] These must
then be closed individually. Holding down
the option key when opening a folder
would also close its parent, but this trick
was not discoverable and remained under
the purview of power users.

Reception
Stewart Alsop II in 1988 said "It is
testimony to either the luck or vision of the
original designers" of Finder that "the
interface has been able to survive
tremendous evolution without much
essential damage" from 1984. He praised
its spatial file manager as "probably a
more complete definition of a PC-based
universe than any" competitor, with users
able to seamlessly use floppies, local and
remote hard disks, and large and small file
servers. Alsop said that even if Apple had
stolen Xerox's technology for Finder, it was
now very different. While criticizing the
lack of a right mouse button and
MultiFinder's clumsiness, he concluded
that "Apple remains the king of user
interfaces. Finder is the only interface with
1.5 million people sitting in front of it daily.
Apple is spending tremendous amounts of
money on both development and basic
research to remain the leader".[6]

Introducing Mac OS X in 2000, Steve Jobs

criticized the original Finder, saying that it
"generates a ton of windows, and you get
to be the janitor."[5]
Ars Technica columnist John Siracusa has
been a long-standing defender of the
spatial interface of the classic Mac OS
Finder, and a critic of the new design.[7]
Daring Fireball blog author John Gruber
has voiced similar criticisms. In a 2005
interview[8] he said that the Finder in
version 10.3 of Mac OS X had become
"worse than in 10.0" and that "the
fundamental problem with the OS X Finder
is that it's trying to support two opposing
paradigms at once – the browser
metaphor ... and the spatial metaphor
from the original Mac Finder ... and it ends
up doing neither one very well." Reviewing
the same version of Mac OS X, Siracusa
comments that the Finder "provides
exactly the same self-destructive
combination of spatial and browser-style
features as all of its Mac OS X
predecessors".[9]

Finder replacements
Third-party macOS software developers
offer Finder replacements that run as
stand-alone applications, such as ForkLift,
Path Finder, Xfile, and XtraFinder. These
replacements are shareware or freeware
and aim to include and supersede the
functionality of the Finder. After Mac OS X
10.4 Tiger the UNIX command line file
management tools understand resource
forks and can be used for management of
Mac files.

The evolution of Finder icons starting with Mac OS 7.6.

Earlier systems used a Happy Mac-style icon for the
Finder software.

Timeline
There are minor differences between
Finder versions and Classic OS to System
7. From System 6 onward, the version
numbers are unified.
Since the introduction of Mac OS X, the
largest rewrite of the Finder was with the
2009 release of Mac OS X 10.6, into the
Cocoa API, though little change was
visible to the user.[10]

Timeline of Macintosh operating systems

See also
Spatial file manager
Miller columns
List of file managers
Comparison of file managers
File Explorer

References
1. Gruber, John. "Walter Isaacson's 'Steve
Jobs' " . Daring Fireball. Retrieved
September 3, 2014.
2. LeVitus, Bob (August 2011). "How to
Burn CDs or DVDs in Mac OS X Lion" .
Mac OS X Lion For Dummies . For
Dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 978-1-118-02205-4. Retrieved
June 29, 2014.
3. Siracusa, John. "OS X Yosemite
review" . Ars Technica. Retrieved
August 15, 2015.
4. Jones, Jasyn. "Missing The Boat On
Panther" . Mac Observer.
5. Rothenberg, Matthew. "New OS X
headlines Jobs keynote" . ZDNet.
6. Alsop, Stewart II (January 18, 1988).
"Apple's Finder: Maturity in UI" (PDF).
P.C. Letter. 4 (2): 4–5.
7. Siracusa, John (April 2, 2003). "About
the Finder..." Retrieved December 20,
2006.
8. Marcin Wichary (September 2005).
"Interview with John Gruber" .
GUIdebook. Retrieved January 13,
2007.
9. John Siracusa (November 9, 2003).
"Same as it ever was" . OS X 10.3
 Panther review. Retrieved August 4,
2012.
10. "11 major new Snow Leopard
features" . Macworld. IDG. August 26,
2009. Retrieved September 4, 2014.

External links
Apple Macintosh before System 7
Ars Technica: About the Finder...
Ars Technica: Review of OS X 10.3  –
discussing the lack of fundamental
changes to the Finder

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Finder_(software)&oldid=902226277"

Last edited 4 days ago by Bumm13

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