Afraid I’ve been a busy boy, much too busy to update FinderPop anywhere near as regularly as I’d like to. In January I moved from Apple Cork, Ireland, to the Apple HQ here in Cupertino, California where I work on the Mac OS X compiler team. I said I’d give life in California a lash for a couple of years. As I have never learned to drive (!!!) it makes for interesting travel arrangements here in the sprawl that is Silicon Valley. Must get around to taking some driving lessons real soon now :) The Valley is one heck of an expensive place to live, too. But the good news is that my fave stout, Beamish, is widely available in supermarkets (it comes in a can with a nitrogenating widget), the weather's A-1*, and I've packed in the ciggies (again!)
But enough of my warbling. You’re probably wondering: so where’s that godawful manual? Well, would you believe that space aliens came and ate it? No? Worth a try, I suppose. Though they’d probably reject it. Anyhow — I’m in the middle of rewriting the manual in HTML, with pictures and possibly even some English, but it’s taking longer than I expected as my spare time is very limited what with the demanding day job and me walking everywhere :)
Sooo… I thought I’d release just the 1.8.6 control panel since it fixes quite a few bugs. If you really want to read turgid FinderPop-related prose, the old manual is available at
http://www.finderpop.com/OldManual.sit
Not that it’ll do you much good.
What’s New In 1.8.6
• Quite a few minor and not-so-minor bugfixes should result in (Cough! Splutter!) Improved Stability (Famous last words.)
• The “Allow Control-Free Contextual Menu Popups in ALL Applications” is now turned OFF by default. This is an attempt to stem the tide of emails I get asking why “FinderPop doesn’t work with such-and-such app.” You can turn it back on in FP’s AutoPopup subpanel. As per usual, you can select whether control-free popup is enabled on an app-by-app basis by using the FinderPop item in every application’s Help menu.
• More Beery Aphorisms in the About Box (command-click on ’em to cycle through ’em.)
• Chicken out completely when StuffIt Expander is running, ’cos it’s doing something very strange
• Fix Hierarchical Apple Menu problems with MacTicker, PhotoTools and other programs
• “Grab & Drag” now invokes a helper (proxy) application to do the dragging and should now work all the time
• Always delete and rewrite the “Grab & Drag” helper (proxy) app at INIT time.
• FYI, if anyone wants an “El Cheapo” mechanism whereby pressing SHIFT-DELETE generates a forward-delete sequence (very handy for my Powerbook), press Command and Option while clicking on the FinderPop logo in the control panel, and choose the appropriate option from the resulting“secret” dialog. I am not going to explain the other options on that dialog, since some of them will be going away real soon now. Use this ‘feature’ at your own risk: it does take some getting used to, but you can turn it off if you run into problems.
FAQ Section
Will there be an OS X version of FinderPop?
— No, FP will never run in its current form on OS X. I may well write something with similar basic functionality, but it will be rather difficult to achieve the level of integration of the OS 9 version.
Are you serious about not being able to drive? What kind of moron are you?
— Yes; a procrastinating moron. Managing to survive into your 30s without learning to drive is unusual even for an Irishman. I always said I’d learn to drive when I could afford a Lamborghini. Sadly, that day is no nearer. But hey, I’m a good walker, and it means I can be the designated drinker in any mobile party!
Do you read and reply to all your email?
— I read all email , and if it warrants a reply, I will try to reply. But if I’m anywhere near as busy as I’ve been over the last couple of months, there isn’t really a whole lot I can do — I’m afraid that, to paraphrase Yeats, things fall between the cracks, if not quite apart. I am not likely to have a whole lot of spare time over the next few months.
Will you fix bugs?
Yes, but see above. If 1.8.6 proves to be too buggy for your use, you can always revert to 1.8.4, available at the website.
What about adding features?
Unless it’s really easy, probably not. If my days suddenly expand to 30 hours, I’ll reconsider it :)
Contacts
Check out www.finderpop.com to get the latest version.
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* In fact, the weather's so A-1 that when I went skiing in Tahoe a few weeks ago, I ended up with 2nd degree facial sunburn and spent a week wearing an ‘inverted raccoon’ look accompanied by badly-peeling skin. My friends were very sympathetic. When they could stop laughing. I kept thinking of that ‘Elephant Man’ chappie — “I am not an animal: I am a human beeeeeing" :)
