Games - Macintosh Finder

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The Finder is the default application program used on the Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems that is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications. As such the Finder acts like the shell on other operating systems, but using a graphical user interface. It was introduced with the very first Macintosh computer, and also existed as part of GS/OS on the Apple IIGS. It underwent a complete rewrite with Apple's switch to a UNIX-based OS in Mac OS X.

The Finder is the first program a user interacts with after booting a Mac, and as such it is responsible for the general look and feel of the machine. One should be careful to distinguish this from the actual GUI of the machine, which is really provided by particular services within the Mac OS (eg, WindowServer). The Finder is just another application, albeit the default one.

The Finder maintains a view of the file system that is rendered using the desktop metaphor - that is, the files and folders are represented as appropriate icons, volumes are displayed on the desktop, and there is a trash can (on the Dock in OS X, on the desktop in previous versions) to which files can be dragged to mark them for deletion.

Finder 1.0 to 4.1

The original Finder, used with the MFS (Macintosh File System) always included a blank folder at the root level of every disk. A new blank folder would be created whenever that folder was renamed and used. Folders could not be placed inside of folders in Finder 1.0-4.1. The folders were maintained only by Finder, and were not stored by the file system. As such, no two files could have the same name on a drive; folders were absent in application "open" dialogs (instead there would be simply a list of all files); and all folder information would be lost after rebuilding the desktop, dumping all files into the root level of the drive.

Finder also provided a "trash folder": the only way to delete a file was to first drag it to the trash folder, then empty the folder. However, the trash folder was also an illusion, and was not reflected on disk. The list of files in the trash was held only in memory. Finder therefore emptied the trash before it terminated, including before running any other application. If a crash intervened, items that had been in the trash were back in their original home.

The original Finder was also the cause of much early user frustration due to slow speed of file copying, which would lead to dozens of disk-swaps on the single-drive original Macintosh. Though much of this problem could be attributed to the small amount of memory available on the Macintosh 128K, Apple attempted to address the issue with Finder 1.1 in May 1984. However, it was Finder 4.1 in April 1985 that really improved the speed of the Finder and added new features, including the "New Folder" command and a "Shut Down" command in the new "Special" menu, which also provided access to the "MiniFinder". MiniFinder was a simplified interface that held often-used applications and documents and launched them much more quickly, which helped ameliorate the slowness of switching between applications to some extent.

Finder 5.x

Apple replaced the MFS with the HFS (Hierarchical File System) in September 1985, as part of Finder 5.0 which was introduced along with the Mac's first hard drive, the Hard Disk 20. Nested folders were no longer an illusion, but rather a reflection of the data organization on the disk. Finder 5.0 also added an "Eject" command in the File menu and several cosmetic changes to the look of the system's icons.

Finder 6.x

Early versions of the Finder would shut down whenever another program was launched, due to the single-tasking nature of the original Mac OS. System 5.x came with Finder 6.0 and the new MultiFinder, which allowed cooperative multitasking. MultiFinder was activated with a control panel whose setting took effect with the next restart. System 6.0.x came with Finder 6.1.x and introduced a much-improved version of MultiFinder, among other enhancements.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Macintosh Finder ]

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