[Qgis-developer] Some concerns about QGIS on OS X, part 2

[Benjamin Ducke]

Mac Programmer wrote:
> Unmac-ish behavior:
> 
> - Non-native dialogs.

Which ones? All of them or just the file dialogs?

> 
> - Open dialog doesn't show other mounted volumes.
> 
> - ~/.qgis   This is a goofy Linux trick that unfortunately Finder 
> honors, meaning it's difficult to browse your plugins with Finder unless 
> you know the trick of entering ~/.qgis in Finder's Go | Go to folder. 
> Why not put the plugins in ~/Library somewhere, maybe under Preferences 
> or Plug-ins or something?

Rather a Unix standard than a goofy trick, perhaps? Meaning: this is
what works just fine for perhaps a majority of the developers and users
on this list. I do agree though, that it would make sense to stick more
closely to Mac OS X conventions for that particular environment.
How about you put some work into fine-tuning the Mac OS X version?

> 
> - Case-sensitive list in Plugin Manager. Only in some weird Unix world 
> would I think to look for fTools at the bottom of an alphabetical list. 
> OS X file system is case insensitive. Lists should be too.

Well, you did find it. So the system works. And for some reason it seems
to make sense to a lot of people, including myself.

> 
> - Too many Linux assumptions. See page 42 in user guide:
> 
>     Your action text now looks like this: 
>   firefox http://google.com/search?q=%NAMES
> 

In this case, rather an assumption that includes Linux and Windows and
pretty much any other OS QGIS runs on except Mac OS X. It is true
though, that the user guide needs to cover OS-specific details.
I suppose we simply don't have enough active Mac users around to
contribute all of those, so feel free to chip in.

> Wrong. On OS X, Firefox is an app bundle (folder) named Firefox.app 
> which will not be in the path. Even if it were, this is the wrong way to 
> launch any app with OS X. Instead, enter something like this:
> 
> open "http://google.com/search?q=%NAME"

Which means that you will no longer be able to exchange a QGIS project
that includes "action links" in an attribute table with users on other
systems. This may actually be a tough problem and needs some thought.
Just going the Mac way because it is presumably better is certainly
not the answer.

Ben

> 
> This launches whatever the default browser is on the system, so you 
> don't need to know its name or path.
> 
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -Phil
> 
> 
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-- 
Benjamin Ducke
Senior Applications Support and Development Officer

Oxford Archaeology Ltd
Janus House
Osney Mead
OX2 0ES
Oxford, U.K.

Tel: +44 (0)1865 263 800 (switchboard)
Tel: +44 (0)1865 980 758 (direct)
Fax :+44 (0)1865 793 496
benjamin.ducke at oxfordarch.co.uk






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