To kbostroem,

If you wish to have as an end-user a simple "workflow in a logical and 
transparent manner" then you should let programmers do their job properly. 
There are good reasons for thinking carefully about an implementation and 
striking the balance right. Arguing "it is so simple for me" therefore it 
should be as simple for anyone else is not really helping. I am saying this 
having plenty of experience on both sides, i.e. programming and end-user sides. 
Moreover open source projects are done on a mere voluntary basis, yet require 
much work on the side of the programmers. Yes BibDesk is great exactly thanks 
to the care and attention paid by the involved programmers. I am involved (here 
as a programmer) in other open source projects (e.g. AlphaX), where things 
don't go as smoothly as in BD, precisely from the perspective  of the end-use. 
One reason possibly because less discipline is bestowed on wishes than is the 
custom in the BD project. 

The consequence, where users and programmers meet, a busy "frontier" in open 
source projects, is, we need most of all respect and gratitude. Let me use this 
as an opportunity to thank once again to all programmers and not the least to 
Christiaan in particular for all the excellent work they have been doing (I am 
not programming on BD) and perhaps stop or at least tone down this discussion a 
notch.

Regards,
Andreas


ETH Zurich
Prof. Dr. Andreas Fischlin
Systems Ecology - Institute of Integrative Biology
CHN E 21.1
Universitaetstrasse 16
8092 Zurich
SWITZERLAND

[email protected]
www.sysecol.ethz.ch

+41 44 633-6090 phone
+41 44 633-1136 fax
+41 79 221-4657 mobile

             Make it as simple as possible, but distrust it!
________________________________________________________________________



On 29/Apr/2011, at 15:37 , kbostroem wrote:

> 
> 
>> I suspect it's because there is a system-wide setting, and that if people
>> were to change this just for BD, it would conflict with that setting.
>> 
> I have the system-wide default set to Preview.app and in BibDesk to
> Skim.app. It works as expected. No conflict.
> 
> 
> 
>> In contrast with TeXShop, whose PDF viewer is built in, BibDesk relies on
>> an external program, and changing the preference for it in BD would take
>> over a system function.
>> 
> Yes but who cares? That's typical for the difference between developers and
> ordinary users. Ordinary users just want the software to simplify their
> workflow in a logical and transparent manner. The software should just work.
> They absolutely do not care if internally, in the guts of the Cocoa
> framework, some comfortable and much beloved preference setting actually
> takes over a system function. Honestly: Is there (or will there ever be) any
> true problem with taking over a system function from within BibDesk
> preferences (besides, perhaps, violating some programmer's dogma)?
> 
> 
> 
>> Also I am pretty sure you can right-click on a PDF icon or image and
>> choose "open with" as a way of opting out of the system-wide setting.
>> 
> Yes, of course. It's right-click/cmd-click, then go down the context menu to
> "open with", wait for the extension menu to unfold, scroll down a list of
> about 20 items and then click on the item near the very bottom (in case of
> "Skim", at least). That makes 4 operations instead of one simple
> double-click every time you want to view a paper! I assume nobody here among
> the proponents truly claims that it's impossible to do so. It's just very
> ... tedious. Tedious enough to explain many user's otherwise unexplainable
> desire for a default setting in the preference pane.--
> View this message in context: 
> http://bibdesk-users.661331.n2.nabble.com/Way-to-make-Skim-default-only-in-Bibdesk-tp2201367p6316928.html
> Sent from the bibdesk users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> 
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