Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS(weblog.antranigv.am)
weblog.antranigv.am
Hardcoded Folder Icons in macOS
https://weblog.antranigv.am/posts/2023/02/hardcoded-folder-icons-in-macos/
129 comments
It may be hard to believe now, but there was a time when iTunes was a great piece of software. It used to have two jobs - play your music and manage your music - and it had a good UI for both tasks.
iTunes had a "brushed metal" interface - the Apple HIG said brushed metal was for apps that represent "devices", as opposed to standard "Aqua" (or "Platinum" if you go back far enough) for apps which represent "documents" - and in the top-right corner was a recessed "iris". When you put a blank CD into the drive, then clicked the iris with a playlist selected, the iris animated opening, revealing a glowing yellow and black "Burn" button (using this same icon). You clicked the glowing button and your playlist would be burnt to CD.
Burning a CD was an expensive operation (both in time and compute, as it slowed the machine down, plus it tied up your CD drive), so the "safety cover" iris and the animation revealing the button underneath used to delight me every time I used it.
iTunes had a "brushed metal" interface - the Apple HIG said brushed metal was for apps that represent "devices", as opposed to standard "Aqua" (or "Platinum" if you go back far enough) for apps which represent "documents" - and in the top-right corner was a recessed "iris". When you put a blank CD into the drive, then clicked the iris with a playlist selected, the iris animated opening, revealing a glowing yellow and black "Burn" button (using this same icon). You clicked the glowing button and your playlist would be burnt to CD.
Burning a CD was an expensive operation (both in time and compute, as it slowed the machine down, plus it tied up your CD drive), so the "safety cover" iris and the animation revealing the button underneath used to delight me every time I used it.
Please stop describing something I remember experiencing like yesterday the same way they talk about ox ploughs at a pioneer village museum.
Now, we’re didn’t have Bluetooth back then like you do today, so we used to plug our headphones in through that little hole you see on the side of every computer. I bet you've always wondered what that hole was for! We used to have them on our phones, too, only back then they didn't have wifi and we called them iPods...
“The dinosaurs of our youth had mounted pigeon boxes below the saddle. Messages could be exchanged on the go through…”
I was having an awful time yesterday using a white noise file to drown out office sounds. My Bluetooth connection kept dropping for a few ms and the white noise would cut to silence. So I rooted around and found the proper analog cable for my Bose to plug in to the MacBook Pro.
No hole.
No hole.
How did you plug it in without a hole?
I had a Bluetooth headset for my Palm Treo 650 actually. But I think I still had to sync it via USB.
My first program was written in FORTRAN on punch cards, back in those days we tied an onion to our belt—no, we didn’t do that, and I was just a kid, so Truthfully what I observed was that in those days mainframes had a “machine room” where the cabinets were cooled with air conditioning popes that ran under the raised floor.
The engineers had those suction cup handles glaziers use to carry panes of glass, they were used to lift floor tiles up to access the cabling and AC running under the floor. Because of the AC, the space under the floor was cold. And that’s where they stored the beer, or a can of root beer for the kid who was hanging around writing simple programs.
I remember that like the day-before-yesterday, but to everyone else it’s as like telling an anecdote about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage commenting on your pull request against the Difference Engine.
The engineers had those suction cup handles glaziers use to carry panes of glass, they were used to lift floor tiles up to access the cabling and AC running under the floor. Because of the AC, the space under the floor was cold. And that’s where they stored the beer, or a can of root beer for the kid who was hanging around writing simple programs.
I remember that like the day-before-yesterday, but to everyone else it’s as like telling an anecdote about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage commenting on your pull request against the Difference Engine.
Ah, I remember the old machine room days. (and I love the typo of air-conditioned popes). A few years ago, my department had a field trip to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield data center in Waukegan for a tour. So unlike the machine rooms of yore, although they did have an IBM big metal machine up there alongside all the rack-mounted servers (and even that was tiny compared to the old IBM mainframe I used to work with at UIC back in the 80s).
I used to use Disco, the website is still alive: https://discoapp.com
When a CD was burning, smoke would emanate from the app, and if you blew on your microphone the smoke would disperse.
When a CD was burning, smoke would emanate from the app, and if you blew on your microphone the smoke would disperse.
Blowing the smoke away is a great touch.
I miss that kind of thing - the closest we get nowadays is when things bounce or shake a little bit as you interact with them.
I guess this is what Gruber was talking about recently - stuff that wouldn't go on a spreadsheet of features but make you want to use the app just because it does stuff like this.
I miss that kind of thing - the closest we get nowadays is when things bounce or shake a little bit as you interact with them.
I guess this is what Gruber was talking about recently - stuff that wouldn't go on a spreadsheet of features but make you want to use the app just because it does stuff like this.
Another similar example, blowing into the microphone would spin the title name around on 3ds games (and poking/blowing at random things in game would sometimes do fun stuff too!)
Those tiny details and fun little things here and there are what people remember in 10-20 years. I wish developers did them more
Those tiny details and fun little things here and there are what people remember in 10-20 years. I wish developers did them more
I suspect these things happened because of waterfall development style. If you finish the product with time before the launch date, you can add in some fun.
Now, everyone uses Agile-ish, and software is NEVER finished. You always have a backlog. Those are always going to be more important to your PM than an Easter Egg.
Now, everyone uses Agile-ish, and software is NEVER finished. You always have a backlog. Those are always going to be more important to your PM than an Easter Egg.
Similarly, there used to be a haxie[0] that could hook Carbon apps and make it so if there were any progress bars in a window, once the progress bar reached 100% progress the "water" in it would begin to overflow and fill the window. Completely pointless but fun.
[0]: A formalized way to distribute code injection hacks for the purpose of user customization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsanity
[0]: A formalized way to distribute code injection hacks for the purpose of user customization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsanity
is the website still alive? getting a bad certificate and if I push past it I get a "Coming Soon"
I guess a mac only application for disk burning becomes a bit pointless when there’s no macs with disc drives any more.
Not entirely pointless. You can connect an external optical drive even to most modern of macs and it'll work. That contraption consisting of a full-size DVD drive and a SATA-USB adapter with external power, plugged into a USB-A/USB-C adapter and then my M1 macbook, for that one time when I was given a CD and was curious to see what's on it? It worked flawlessly. Though I've never tried burning discs on macOS, I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work.
Unless you have a Pioneer drive and macOS 13.2
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-13-2-breaks-compa...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-13-2-breaks-compa...
Burning discs, even from an M1 Mac, works just fine. I burned a CD just the other day.
I have an external BDXL burner sitting on top of my Mac Studio. It’s a real shame they couldn’t find space internally for such a thing.
there’s no macs with disc drives any more
The drives still exist. They're just optional now. Like bucket seats.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-super...
Best optical drive I own. When nothing else will read a crusty disc, the SuperDrive always does.
The drives still exist. They're just optional now. Like bucket seats.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-super...
Best optical drive I own. When nothing else will read a crusty disc, the SuperDrive always does.
Fun fact. That's the oldest product they still sell as it was introduced with the original MacBook Air in 2008. They've done literally nothing to it and it sill comes with a USB A cable despite most of their computers not having one at all. It also is pretty bad value these days when a Blu-ray writer costs about the same.
It depends on what you're using it for. I have a couple of Blu-Ray drives, and they're much more finicky than the SuperDrive.
When a disc won't read or write in my Pioneer drive, I try it in my no-name Blu-ray drive, and when that fails, I try it in the SuperDrive, and it always works.
I consider something that works reliably 99% of the time to be a better value than something that works 80% of the time.
When a disc won't read or write in my Pioneer drive, I try it in my no-name Blu-ray drive, and when that fails, I try it in the SuperDrive, and it always works.
I consider something that works reliably 99% of the time to be a better value than something that works 80% of the time.
I'd wager they are just selling whatever inventory they have yet, and it'll never get a USB-C refresh.
> Burning a CD was an expensive operation (both in time and compute, as it slowed the machine down, plus it tied up your CD drive)
Discs were also decently expensive then as well, so financially expensive too. Not prohibitively so, but not like today where a failed disc is just a coaster not a headache. This may have been near the cusp of when that balance shifted, but I remember quite a bit of angst when I was a young'in burning mix discs for my Discman.
Discs were also decently expensive then as well, so financially expensive too. Not prohibitively so, but not like today where a failed disc is just a coaster not a headache. This may have been near the cusp of when that balance shifted, but I remember quite a bit of angst when I was a young'in burning mix discs for my Discman.
At the bottom of this page is a picture of the "Burn CD" button:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/audio_only_fcp_cd.html
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/audio_only_fcp_cd.html
Wait until they find out you can simply paste a new icon on any folder!
Some great old skool ones at https://freeware.iconfactory.com/icons
Just look at those .. so good .. https://i.imgur.com/0fMNFFX.png
Some great old skool ones at https://freeware.iconfactory.com/icons
Just look at those .. so good .. https://i.imgur.com/0fMNFFX.png
If folks are not aware you can also use Get Info (Command + I) then drag a new icon onto the existing icon for any drive or folder. This is how I set custom icons for different partitions (I have show drives on desktop enabled).
Love the Iconfactory icons. My favourite is the Arcade Daze series: https://freeware.iconfactory.com/preview/adsy
Iconfactory also updated their icon manager, CandyBar, to work with Apple Silicon. https://blog.iconfactory.com/2022/04/candybar-sugar-free-edi...
Iconfactory also updated their icon manager, CandyBar, to work with Apple Silicon. https://blog.iconfactory.com/2022/04/candybar-sugar-free-edi...
It doesn’t even have to be an icon. For my digital copies of DVDs, I change the icon to the cover of the DVD by copying the image to the clipboard, doing cmd-I on the file, selecting the icon in the upper left corner and pasting the image in place of the icon. The default view for the folder with all the DVD rips has large icons and black text on a black background to hide the file names (for aesthetics). I miss the old carousel view which would make it feel like flipping through a stack of DVDs to find what I wanted to watch.
I don't remember their names, but there used to be apps that would take a raw cover image and place it in a nicely rendered CD/DVD cover template to produce a pseudophotorealistic cover icon which you could then paste on rips.
The Mac customization scene used to be a pretty vibrant place… you can still see traces of it but it's dwindled over the years.
The Mac customization scene used to be a pretty vibrant place… you can still see traces of it but it's dwindled over the years.
There's an app called "image2icon" which does this quite well. It's part of Setapp. It also does folders, etc.
For a period I was replacing my vscode icon with a dark one, but every app update (which is fairly frequent) would clobber it.
https://github.com/dhanishgajjar/vscode-icons
https://github.com/dhanishgajjar/vscode-icons
I wrote a script and aliased it so that after each vsc update I just run the script to replace its icon.
vscode’s icon is so bland and boring, it’s also hard to distinguish from other apps cause nowadays lots of apps use blue colored icons.
vscode’s icon is so bland and boring, it’s also hard to distinguish from other apps cause nowadays lots of apps use blue colored icons.
way too many macOS icons are set on a rounded white rectangle which definitely reduces your ability to quickly identify an app. miss the old days of unique app icon silhouettes because it definitely helps with quickly identifying the app.
There is a small utility called Replacicon[1] that fixes this.
[1] https://replacicon.app/
[1] https://replacicon.app/
Years ago I needed to run from time to time a very old version of XCode (2.X while the current one was 3.X). I opened the original icon of the old app in Gimp, turned the blueprint to a red hue, and replaced it. Easy to tell what you have open in the dock!
I used to "collect" icon sets, even though I only ever used about 1% of them
I used to make my Gentoo installs as close as I could get to grayscale, for everything except content. Looked awesome, but like all other fiddly customizations, I basically gave it up after a while. Too much effort for too little reward.
[EDIT] Uh, the connection being that I would also collect grayscale icon sets, since sometimes the best results came from mix-and-matching those, as some might lack good icons (or any at all) for some programs.
[EDIT] Uh, the connection being that I would also collect grayscale icon sets, since sometimes the best results came from mix-and-matching those, as some might lack good icons (or any at all) for some programs.
Any file too. I use a ton of custom icons to visually distinguish important files.
Folder, yes. Drive, unfortunately not[1]. One of those odd things which is theoretically for security, but practically annoying.
1: https://www.macworld.com/article/609302/want-to-change-a-mac...
1: https://www.macworld.com/article/609302/want-to-change-a-mac...
I have every volume of each drive connected to my Mac Mini set to a custom icon, using the same native method people describe above for folders/files. Am I missing something?
I don't understand the linked article either, as it says it doesn't work on ExFAT, but first thing I do on a new USB stick is Google Image Search a product photo, make it alpha channel, then turn it into an icon by pasting in Get Info for the mounted drive icon. Per the article this shouldn't work, but it does.
For a few years now I've been using a ~/Uploads directory, as in the opposite of ~/Downloads
Uploads is where I put any temporary files that I've just made, e.g. an attachment I need to email, or upload into an online service of some kind. Previously my desktop became littered with these files which I absolutely hated.
I just wish I could set the sidebar icon to an upwards arrow.
Uploads is where I put any temporary files that I've just made, e.g. an attachment I need to email, or upload into an online service of some kind. Previously my desktop became littered with these files which I absolutely hated.
I just wish I could set the sidebar icon to an upwards arrow.
You can use preview to edit the icon files.
For each icon size: Use the smart lasso to make a circular selection, then rotate left 2 times.
For each icon size: Use the smart lasso to make a circular selection, then rotate left 2 times.
That works for the folder icon, but not the icon in the Finder sidebar
What are you talking about? It’s easy[0]! /s
0 - https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/seig87/how_to_make_cus...
0 - https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/seig87/how_to_make_cus...
“Developer” wasn’t intended for your code but rather as a Developer specific Applications folder.
IDEs and debug tools and what have you. Xcode in earlier versions of Mac OS X installed to Developer
IDEs and debug tools and what have you. Xcode in earlier versions of Mac OS X installed to Developer
Is there anything that still automatically installs itself there?
If it's not used for that anymore, might as well use it for code.
If it's not used for that anymore, might as well use it for code.
/System/Developer still exists, though it doesn't contain anything
/Library/Developer is where Xcode's Command-line tools install too, your apple sdk's, along with a copy of clang, swift, and git
Neither of them seem to have cool icons though
/Library/Developer is where Xcode's Command-line tools install too, your apple sdk's, along with a copy of clang, swift, and git
Neither of them seem to have cool icons though
There's also a Developer directory (somewhere) within the Xcode app bundle.
Counterpoint is that it requires the shift key, is relatively long (compared to, say, src) and shares the “De” prefix with Desktop.
That said, it’s what I use.
That said, it’s what I use.
> Counterpoint is that it requires the shift key
Nope. MacOS's filesystem is by default case-insensitive but case-preserving:
Nope. MacOS's filesystem is by default case-insensitive but case-preserving:
cd ~/developer
cd ~/Developer
You can use Folderify[1] to easily add an image to any folder.
[1]: https://github.com/lgarron/folderify
[1]: https://github.com/lgarron/folderify
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Someone should convert this into a web app where you can drag and drop an icon.
Developer is a weird string choice though, why not Development or Code.
It would be like MS naming its product VS Coder (lol)
It appears to be a relic from the NeXT days.
If you look at the video [1] you can see it installing developer tools into the NeXTDeveloper and NeXTLibrary folders. So it's quite possible Apple just did a find/replace and removed the prefix.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMh0WsLZZVY
If you look at the video [1] you can see it installing developer tools into the NeXTDeveloper and NeXTLibrary folders. So it's quite possible Apple just did a find/replace and removed the prefix.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMh0WsLZZVY
Earlier versions of Mac OS X would install the development tools in /Developer on the hard drive too.
Right - it was more like Utilities than Documents. A folder for a type of app that not every user needed, not for documented created for a purpose.
Some older versions of Xcode installed themselves and SDKs and other developer tools into /Developer. All that stuff lives in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer now.
/usr is ok, so /Developer is also ok
Personally going to start using the ~/Developer directory for all my projects now
Too bad its first letter collides with Desktop, Downloads and Documents, all of which cannot be removed. One of the little details I miss from Linux.
I usually call that directory just "dev", and use lowercase names for all custom directories so zsh completion actually works.
I usually call that directory just "dev", and use lowercase names for all custom directories so zsh completion actually works.
What I do is create a symbolic link to the "Developer" folder called "src". Both folders have the custom icon, and I can `cd src/project`!
> Too bad its first letter collides with Desktop, Downloads and Documents, all of which cannot be removed.
For a "clean" home directory I started to visible hide default folders I have no interest in:
For a "clean" home directory I started to visible hide default folders I have no interest in:
chflags hidden ~/Music
> For a "clean" home directory I started to visible hide default folders I have no interest in:
> chflags hidden ~/Music
I sort of do the opposite. I hide any folders I add to the home directory
I sort of do the opposite. I hide any folders I add to the home directory
chflags hidden ~/bin
chflags hidden ~/Applications
chflags hidden ~/sandbox
Where do you keep your music?
Who keeps music?
I’ve been doing this for years, it’s a nice touch!
Don’t forget to update the folder permissions to be like the others in your home directory. By default all users of your machine will have read access to the ~/Developer folder you create.
And while you’re at it, might as well pin that folder to the left side of Finder.
Don’t forget to update the folder permissions to be like the others in your home directory. By default all users of your machine will have read access to the ~/Developer folder you create.
And while you’re at it, might as well pin that folder to the left side of Finder.
I've been using ~/code, but if I can get a fancy sidebar icon, why not switch?
Just set the icon yourself?
There is no way I am aware of to set the icon in the sidebar, the consensus of the thread here seems to be that there is no such way.
[deleted]
I remember KDE's kioslaves allowing you to rip a CD in several formats by dragging and dropping a folder.
Still works that way. I just did it yesterday.
This reminds me of the "magical" CLSID folder names you can use in Windows to embed special folders in your filesystem. This can be quite useful as some of the hidden functionality includes an overview of many conntrol panel settings usually hidden deep within the directory structure. Plus, applications can register their own special panes if they wish, allowing you to use Windows Explorer as a front-end for your application.
I'm a little confused though; I've been using custom folder icons since at least Windows XP, surely you can just set a custom icon on your folders in macOS? I wouldn't want a clunky name like "Developer " in my home directory, "Development" or "Projects" would fit the context much better.
Edit: looks like you can. You need to open an icns file, hit the copy command, open a folder's properties and paste (https://support.apple.com/en-US/guide/mac-help/mchlp2313/mac). Bizarre that there's no UI for this, I would've expected a system icon selection popup at the very least.
I'm a little confused though; I've been using custom folder icons since at least Windows XP, surely you can just set a custom icon on your folders in macOS? I wouldn't want a clunky name like "Developer " in my home directory, "Development" or "Projects" would fit the context much better.
Edit: looks like you can. You need to open an icns file, hit the copy command, open a folder's properties and paste (https://support.apple.com/en-US/guide/mac-help/mchlp2313/mac). Bizarre that there's no UI for this, I would've expected a system icon selection popup at the very least.
Pasting (or dragging) icons into the folder info window is the UI for it.
Is it? Following the macOS paradigm, I'd expect dragging a file to the folder icon to place the file inside that folder.
Paste it into the Get Info (Properties) window, not the folder itself.
Windows method isn't much better, with that miniscule non-resizable horizontally-scrolling icon picker that doesn't scroll with the scroll wheel, so you have to click the scrollbar arrows like a caveman. I like to use the briefcase folder icon for my Projects folder (I think it's located inside C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll).
Windows method isn't much better, with that miniscule non-resizable horizontally-scrolling icon picker that doesn't scroll with the scroll wheel, so you have to click the scrollbar arrows like a caveman. I like to use the briefcase folder icon for my Projects folder (I think it's located inside C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll).
The copy/paste the icon file dates back to pre-OSX MacOS. There were many theming utilities for MacOS that made the process easier and a lot of them came over to OSX/macOS, but they seem to have died out now.
You can just drag or paste a nice looking transparent PNG onto the icon in the Inspector.
I was curious about how this works on my computer. Looks like these folders are defined in a config file and it’s possible to add custom folders:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_user_directories
No way to add unique icons for them though:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/124714/custom-xdg-dir-icon
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_user_directories
No way to add unique icons for them though:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/124714/custom-xdg-dir-icon
> If you’re new to macOS, this is a kindly reminder that macOS ships with Apache2.
Oh, I didn't realize that. Seems like a strange choice?
Oh, I didn't realize that. Seems like a strange choice?
It's been in macOS for quite some time. Mostly dormant now but at one point it was what powered the Web Sharing option in the Sharing prefpane. It was also used in OS X Server (both the OS X versions designed for Xserve and the later "app" version) before that was largely whittled away.
I can't exactly find if it came with OS X since the beginning (which would predate nginx and friends), but it probably was a much more likely choice back in the day, and I guess that's why it's still included. Wouldn't be surprised to see it quietly disappear from later macOS releases, though.
I can't exactly find if it came with OS X since the beginning (which would predate nginx and friends), but it probably was a much more likely choice back in the day, and I guess that's why it's still included. Wouldn't be surprised to see it quietly disappear from later macOS releases, though.
"quite some time", is an understatement. The Apache HTTP Server was included as part of Mac OS X starting with version 10.0 (Cheetah), which was released on March 24, 2001. Prior to that, users of Mac OS X would have to manually install and configure Apache HTTP Server, if they desired to run a web server on their Mac.
Was there a meaningful "before" for Mac OS X? 10.0 was the first X (unless you mean developer previews and the like).
Mac OS X server had 1.0, 1.1 and 1.23 released before 10.0 was released, based on Rhapsody.
Apache was one of the installable options alongside Emacs and WebObjects.
Apache was one of the installable options alongside Emacs and WebObjects.
[deleted]
I feel like it dates from earlier internet, before the age of walled garden takeover, when it still seemed like a decentralized internet would be the thing, and everyone would be, like, using a desktop GUI to create html or something. Of course everyone should have a webserver on their machine, right?
Apple was ahead of the curve on something that never arrived and many of us still miss.
Apple was ahead of the curve on something that never arrived and many of us still miss.
The web sharing was more about sharing on local networks. It was the same concept as the Public folder for file sharing which dates back to NeXT. When Bonjour née Rendezvous was released Apple build an Apache module for it. When web sharing was enabled it would advertise the server over Bonjour. Safari still supports Bonjour server discovery IIRC.
The Apache install would obviously work over the Internet but sharing over the local network was its main purpose.
The Apache install would obviously work over the Internet but sharing over the local network was its main purpose.
That makes sense, thanks for the context!
What kind of content do you think they imagined as use cases for local network http server over bonjour? Like for a small business? Or household? Or giving strangers access to something when you happened to be physically adjacent and on the same network?
It still seems like kind of evidence of a decentralized networking environment that never really came to be... bonjour in general kind of is, although it's still there and gets used for some specific things. But we have ended up doing a lot more connections "cloud-mediated" instead of peer-to-peer.
What kind of content do you think they imagined as use cases for local network http server over bonjour? Like for a small business? Or household? Or giving strangers access to something when you happened to be physically adjacent and on the same network?
It still seems like kind of evidence of a decentralized networking environment that never really came to be... bonjour in general kind of is, although it's still there and gets used for some specific things. But we have ended up doing a lot more connections "cloud-mediated" instead of peer-to-peer.
MacOS 9 had a personal web sharing feature. The Apache server with Rendezvous/Bonjour was basically the MacOS X implementation of the same. For OSX it was literally a free mechanism to add web sharing.
As for the use case, in the classic MacOS days and even early days of OSX the system didn't ship with support for Windows file sharing. It wasn't until IIRC Jaguar (10.2) that Samba shipped default with the system. Web sharing made for a workable lowest common denominator for getting content off a Mac to Windows. With Bonjour (in Safari) you'll see all the shares on the local network segment.
Additionally since web sharing was just Apache it shipped with a bunch of the extension modules. I believe PHP was enabled by default so you could just drop a PHP script in your Sites folder for a dynamic page. CGI was also simple to enable because thanks to all the shipped modules.
Bonjour is decidedly a local peer-to-peer discovery mechanism. Even the packets have a short TTL so they don't route beyond local segments. It's far too chatty to be a WAN discovery system.
We ended up with cloud mediated connections because of NAT and UPnP hole poking sucks. Residential routers are really shitty in general. They also don't make port forwarding easy (or possible). So a host behind a NAT router doesn't usually have good options for receiving incoming connections. That's why we've got a bunch of NAT traversal protocols and need public hosts to mediate those connections.
As for the use case, in the classic MacOS days and even early days of OSX the system didn't ship with support for Windows file sharing. It wasn't until IIRC Jaguar (10.2) that Samba shipped default with the system. Web sharing made for a workable lowest common denominator for getting content off a Mac to Windows. With Bonjour (in Safari) you'll see all the shares on the local network segment.
Additionally since web sharing was just Apache it shipped with a bunch of the extension modules. I believe PHP was enabled by default so you could just drop a PHP script in your Sites folder for a dynamic page. CGI was also simple to enable because thanks to all the shipped modules.
Bonjour is decidedly a local peer-to-peer discovery mechanism. Even the packets have a short TTL so they don't route beyond local segments. It's far too chatty to be a WAN discovery system.
We ended up with cloud mediated connections because of NAT and UPnP hole poking sucks. Residential routers are really shitty in general. They also don't make port forwarding easy (or possible). So a host behind a NAT router doesn't usually have good options for receiving incoming connections. That's why we've got a bunch of NAT traversal protocols and need public hosts to mediate those connections.
OS X used to be a very decent out-of-the-box server OS, that also came with an actually usable GUI to configure many things.
A friend of mine would put a "shared" Mac Mini somewhere in the office at almost every job he's ever had, "just in case". Need to let a guest browse the web? The router is failing? Transcode some media? It always came in clutch.
A friend of mine would put a "shared" Mac Mini somewhere in the office at almost every job he's ever had, "just in case". Need to let a guest browse the web? The router is failing? Transcode some media? It always came in clutch.
One of my first real jobs I was tasked with maintaining the department's website. After a while I asked my supervisor where it was actually hosted. He took me over to another building and showed me a headless G3 B&W PowerMac on the floor of a shared office. It had been the original developer's machine and they just left it running dutifully for years. This was before https was common and it was a static site so really you could have hosted it on anything.
The people working in that office were unaware of what it did, just that it should never be turned off. ;)
The people working in that office were unaware of what it did, just that it should never be turned off. ;)
Mac OS X used to ship with a wide variety of open source software such as Samba or CUPS. Most of that stuff is removed nowadays but some is still present. Many networking services can be easily activated using the settings app.
>> used to ship with a wide variety of open source software such as Samba or CUPS
The CUPS software is still available in Ventura and it comes with version 2.3.4. This version is more up-to-date compared to the latest release of CUPS from Apple on Github and it doesn't match any releases in OpenPrinting CUPS.
The CUPS software is still available in Ventura and it comes with version 2.3.4. This version is more up-to-date compared to the latest release of CUPS from Apple on Github and it doesn't match any releases in OpenPrinting CUPS.
Until Mojave it came with PHP. It's probably a relic of a time when installing runtimes/system software wasn't as easy.
It even has tftp server:
https://rick.cogley.info/post/run-a-tftp-server-on-mac-osx/
https://rick.cogley.info/post/run-a-tftp-server-on-mac-osx/
I noticed this when I reinstalled macOS. At some point they stopped including a ~/Sites folder but if you create one now it will give you the special Sites folder icon in the main Finder window. Oddly though they did not update the small version of the icon so it shows up in the sidebar as a regular folder.
I have been using Developer folder since many years. Never bothered to investigate where the hardcoded icons came from.
I wish there was a nice default icon for ~/Games
Ugh that capitalization
If you want to use any of these,
1) Navigate in the Finder to /System/Library/CoreServices/
2) Open "CoreTypes.bundle" by right-clicking it and selecting "Sow Package Contents" from the centext menu, then open the "Contents" folder, then "Resources"
3) There they are! Find a suitable icon (preview either with "Get Info" or by double-clicking, which will open them in Preview)
4) In a second window, navigate to the folder you want to decorate.
5) Select it and open its file info with "Get Info" (either using Command + I, the context menu, or "Get Info" in the "File" menu)
6) Drag and drop the .icns file onto the little icon at the top left. (Not onto the big preview.) You have now successfully copied the icns resources.
To revert to the default icon, just select the small icon in the file info and hit delete.
1) Navigate in the Finder to /System/Library/CoreServices/
2) Open "CoreTypes.bundle" by right-clicking it and selecting "Sow Package Contents" from the centext menu, then open the "Contents" folder, then "Resources"
3) There they are! Find a suitable icon (preview either with "Get Info" or by double-clicking, which will open them in Preview)
4) In a second window, navigate to the folder you want to decorate.
5) Select it and open its file info with "Get Info" (either using Command + I, the context menu, or "Get Info" in the "File" menu)
6) Drag and drop the .icns file onto the little icon at the top left. (Not onto the big preview.) You have now successfully copied the icns resources.
To revert to the default icon, just select the small icon in the file info and hit delete.
You can also press Shift + Command + G and paste /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/ to go there directly.
Unfortunately, even if you set a custom icon for a folder, it'll still show as default icon in the sidebar. I wanted to give my ~/dev sidebar entry the developer icon, but sadly it seems to be hardcoded ~/Developer indeed.
Unfortunately, even if you set a custom icon for a folder, it'll still show as default icon in the sidebar. I wanted to give my ~/dev sidebar entry the developer icon, but sadly it seems to be hardcoded ~/Developer indeed.
> Unfortunately…
Yes, this is a favorite petty grievance of mine: this used to work until some years ago and it was very helpful for quickly navigating to key folders, like those used for your current project, as you hadn't to actually read the sidebar items. For another few OS iterations this could be fixed by add-ons, but then this also wasn't an option anymore. (Apple really invested into making this not an option. I guess, this coincided with Jonathan Ive's takeover of interface design, when clean looks according to design templates became more important than usability.)
Yes, this is a favorite petty grievance of mine: this used to work until some years ago and it was very helpful for quickly navigating to key folders, like those used for your current project, as you hadn't to actually read the sidebar items. For another few OS iterations this could be fixed by add-ons, but then this also wasn't an option anymore. (Apple really invested into making this not an option. I guess, this coincided with Jonathan Ive's takeover of interface design, when clean looks according to design templates became more important than usability.)
The Terror of Clean Looks, Part 2
"This proxy icon really fuzzes with my clean looks. Let's make it so that is hidden, but, when you hover long enough over it or click it, it will appear and shift to the title to the right. This only causes a break-down of your visual mapping and will force your brain into a 0.2s timeout for reorientation, but my design template is worth it. Now you only have to reposition the mouse pointer and click once again and there you are… — This is really how modeless direct manipulation should be done!"
Who ever did this to my Mac, if you're reading this, repent.
"This proxy icon really fuzzes with my clean looks. Let's make it so that is hidden, but, when you hover long enough over it or click it, it will appear and shift to the title to the right. This only causes a break-down of your visual mapping and will force your brain into a 0.2s timeout for reorientation, but my design template is worth it. Now you only have to reposition the mouse pointer and click once again and there you are… — This is really how modeless direct manipulation should be done!"
Who ever did this to my Mac, if you're reading this, repent.
Try: defaults write com.apple.finder NSWindowSupportsAutomaticInlineTitle -bool false, then
killall Finder
>> Unfortunately, even if you set a custom icon for a folder...
Yeah this is what I hoped the article was going to demonstrate, unfortuntely it was just a case of "did you know you had all these system icons already on your system?", to which the answer was "well yeah..."
Yeah this is what I hoped the article was going to demonstrate, unfortuntely it was just a case of "did you know you had all these system icons already on your system?", to which the answer was "well yeah..."
> You can also press Shift + Command + G
Ok, after 10 years of Mac OS, I'm only learning this right now?? And I'm stupid because it's right there in the "Go" menu… I used to just launch a terminal and use the "open" command…
Many thanks for this.
Ok, after 10 years of Mac OS, I'm only learning this right now?? And I'm stupid because it's right there in the "Go" menu… I used to just launch a terminal and use the "open" command…
Many thanks for this.
So many applications and such have shortcuts that are quite useful but hidden. It can be worth a few minutes crawling through the menus and accessibility settings.
The one I like is you can universally change the short cut for paste so that “paste without formatting” is the default CMD-V
The one I like is you can universally change the short cut for paste so that “paste without formatting” is the default CMD-V
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Goddamn. Sorry, I had to laugh that the ~/Sites folder icon lives inside apache2.
Here's how unevolved I am. I strip every new Mac I buy down to nothing, remove all Apple apps, install Homebrew mysql, apache, nginx, node and php, and then point all my fucking local build shit at...wait for it... the ~/Sites folder because that used to be the place you'd automatically drop things to have built-in apache pick them up and treat them as localhost in 2008, and I just don't want to change where I store shit in my grand 25-year-old file hierarchy. And that icon's still there.
Here's how unevolved I am. I strip every new Mac I buy down to nothing, remove all Apple apps, install Homebrew mysql, apache, nginx, node and php, and then point all my fucking local build shit at...wait for it... the ~/Sites folder because that used to be the place you'd automatically drop things to have built-in apache pick them up and treat them as localhost in 2008, and I just don't want to change where I store shit in my grand 25-year-old file hierarchy. And that icon's still there.
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> Apple has a weird way of doing mount points, and I’m not here to judge.
Read that again, but slowly
Read that again, but slowly
I may leave it there, to have something fun to talk about when sharing a screen over Teams with colleagues.