Here are a few things I’ve noticed that just don’t make sense in Mac OS X v10.5.
- Desktop & Screen Saver rolled into a single preference pane. Why? Are we that convinced that one day we’re going to have a screen saver running in the background as our desktop, and the only way to configure it is to have it in the same preference panel?
- Keyboard & Mouse are a single preference panel (but Trackpad is separate). Again, why? The only conceivable answer is that Apple thought it important that the battery levels for both the keyboard and mouse are in a single preference pane, which also has an option to add a new device. But the “add device” functionality is already duplicated in Bluetooth.
- Exposé & Spaces are a single preference panel. Are they related? Well, a little, but not that much. And how does Dashboard fit in here, which is also thrown in for fun?
- Translucent Menu Bar is in Desktop, rather than Appearance.
- Scroll bar behavior is in Appearance.
- The number of recent items to show in menus is in Appearance.
- The option to automatically adjust keyboard back lighting is under Displays. (But typing “Dim” into the preference pane search only hilights the Energy Saver panel.)
Oh, sure, it’s better than Windows. Of that there’s no doubt. And sure, we got here via a series of small, well-intentioned steps. But let’s not get too smug about Mac OS X: It still needs a lot of tuning to be intuitive.
Much of these things don’t make sense, but I’m not sure about the Trackpad preference panel. It’s separate… so that it only appears on notebooks?
Yeah, I’m sure that’s the real reason for it. But does it make sense for a user? Not really.
Is a user looking for the mouse really going to recognize that icon as half mouse? (For that matter, it’s not a good representation of a keyboard, either.)
I think it’s combining the Keyboard and Mouse panels that don’t make sense. For someone like me with wired keyboard/mouse, the useful controls in it are:
Keyboard repeat rate/delay.
Keyboard shortcuts.
Mouse buttons.
One of those three do not belong with the other.
Another thing I was going to write about is the keyboard shortcuts scattered everywhere. Most of them you can set in Keyboard Shortcuts. Dashboard key? Change it in Exposé & Spaces or Keyboard. Spotlight key? Either. But the Spaces keys? They’re only available through Exposé & Spaces.
All of this makes a perfect amount of sense from a development perspective. I understand how Mac OS X got here, and it was with the best of intentions. But it needs work.
(Tangent: I desperately need to fix my CSS here.)
1. I think they are heavily related.
2. They are in a single panel. Trackpad is inside them.
3. They are all desktop enhancements.
4. Possibly because this affects the Desktop. I would partly agree on this with you but I think this maybe is a personal decision as there are 2 possible contexts.
5. I agree with you.
6. Partly agree as I don`t quite think about a better place for them to be.
7. Totally agree. This is even difficult to find!
I don`t agree with all the points mentioned, but I understand you mean by saying it`s not perfect and it has a lot to improve eventhough is far better than Windows.
Yeah, a lot of it is highly debatable. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t perfect either.
If it helps, compare it to 10.4. Nearly every change in 10.5 was for the better.
Yeah that can be annoying stuff. But it could just be that their streamlining their code and grouping functions according to what prefPane module they fit best in. You can discuss the ‘logic’ ad infinitum et ad nauseam without ever getting anywhere, right? But make the code as efficient as possible first – then worry about user friendly afterwards.
It’s a theory.