On Sep 24, 2006, at 0:23, James Marks wrote:
I think a lot of what's at the heart of our differences of opinion are differences in editing approaches and environments so let me explain my workflow a little more.
Actually, our editing approaches and environments are very similar. Well, probably for 75% of my projects anyway - for the rest, I edit locally.
I think the real heart of our differences is that we're both using some great tools that we're so fond of and use so much that certain usage patterns are hard-wired into our brains to the extent that changes in the tiniest of details throws us completely off. Sort of like branch prediction failure on a larger scale :-).
The Mac OS X GUI is beautiful and amazing, but when I'm administering servers or writing code, my time is split pretty evenly between the terminal and BBEdit with visits to a variety of web browsers to check my results.
More out of habit than anything, I tend to use the terminal when I want to use rsync or scp, and Interarchy for other transfer tasks. Interarchy also has a CLI interface, and I've used it a couple of times for some automation chores, but I've not gotten into the practice of using it on a day-to-day basis yet. For non-transfer tasks, I tend to use either terminal or some graphical solution with the choice mostly being based on the complexity of the task and how often I do it. Basically, the harder and the rarer, the more likely to go graphical. For example, when I want to observe network traffic, which I don't do very often, I never use tcpdump anymore because Interarchy just makes it a snap - no more reading the man page every time.
I'm a keyboard fanatic. I use the mouse only when I have to. Generally, I can blow through applications, windows, files and servers without having to take my hands off the keyboard. It's easy and efficient.
I don't concern myself too much with focusing on the keyboard, or the mouse for that matter. I find I'm most efficient when I simply use whichever is most convenient at a given time for a given task. I am well-practiced with the keyboard shortcuts for menu items and window controls in all the software I use regularly, and I tend to use them quite a bit more than I use the mouse. However, when it comes to tasks where I need to enter long pathnames, I find that simply dragging a file with the mouse is far quicker (and less error-prone) than typing in the terminal even with the shell's various shortcuts (like tab to auto-complete).
Typically, though, for a procedure that involves the mouse, I also choose to use keyboard versions of some of the commands that could be done with the mouse. For example, in BBEdit, I might do something like click to position the insertion point before a block of text, scroll down with the Page Down key, shift-click at the end of the block to select its contents, then hit cmd-opt-\ to rewrap the text. This procedure could be done entirely with the mouse or entirely with the keyboard, but I'm quickest using a mix (especially if the block is a long one spanning multiple screens).
As a result of this discussion, I have taken a look at Interarchy and Transmit. They both look very cool but, honestly, I'd prefer to not have to add more programs to the workflow just to have the same functionality I had before.
That's certainly fair. I'm not against retaining existing features (that are actually used), but I'm not crazy about the idea of adding new features that don't qualify as FTP basics.
It doesn't seem like it should be that hard: adding shortcut keys to the FTP interface similar to those in the "Find & Replace" interface so that choices could be made from the keyboard and making the "Connect" button the default so that you don't have to use the mouse to initiate the connection to the server.
These requests are definitely reasonable. I also just noticed that the New Dir button is gone in 8.5, but maybe I've missed or forgotten something.
(Why else would you open an FTP browser if not to connect to the server?)
Well, to set up the bookmarks, of course. Isn't that the primary purpose? (I assume that this is an oversight and one of these details that BB will get added back in.)
As features and shortcomings go, this particular issue isn't really that big of a deal and is mostly an annoyance but someone mourned its loss and I simply concurred (and still do).
It's a kludge, but as a workaround until the fix comes, I think you can set up an AppleScript to make the button keyboard-accessible. Look into the UI scripting features that Apple added to Tiger via Universal Access.
(Also, I wasn't the one who had trouble with Interarchy, version 4.1 or otherwise. I believe that was Warren.)
Sorry 'bout that. It's been a rambling thread. (Yes, I know, I'm the one doing them most of that rambling, but still....)
Regards, "Ramblin' Man" -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Have a feature request? Not sure the software's working correctly? If so, please send mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not to the list. List FAQ: <http://www.barebones.com/support/lists/bbedit_talk.shtml> List archives: <http://www.listsearch.com/BBEditTalk.lasso> To unsubscribe, send mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
