Advantage Mac
Waking Up
Feb 15th
One issue that I’ve been running into lately is that I have to press the power button to wake my computer from sleep mode. On the Mac, I could move the mouse or hit a key or two on the keyboard, and it would wake right up. I miss that, and it’s gotten bad enough that I’m now ready to go searching for third-party patches that will duplicate this feature under Windows 7. It may already be in the Control Panel. Guess I should look, eh?
Column View and Preview Doesn’t Show Folder Contents
Jan 9th
Another thing I’ve found that I miss is the ability to view folder contents in the Column view. On the Mac, in Column view, you can click on a folder and see the folder’s contents, including other folders, in the preview column. Clicking once on an item in the preview column will preview that item, or, if another folder, will preview that folder’s contents, and so on. Basically, as long as you have folders within folders, the Finder will continue to create preview columns until you either find the item you’re looking for, or there are no more folders to click on.
In Windows 7, you can only go one folder deep: to see within that folder, you must open another window — there’s no previewing the contents.
I’ve searched for something that will mimic this ability in Windows, but so far my search has come up empty.
Windows Screensaver Failings
Jan 8th
I really miss being able to drag my cursor to the lower-left corner of my screen and having the screensaver start up automatically. For those of you not familiar, on the Mac, you can set up a variety of actions that occur when you move the mouse into a preset corner. I’ve found a number of posts online that show me how to set up an icon on the desktop that I can click to start the screensaver, but it’s not the same — plus I don’t like having icons all over my desktop.
If anyone out there is aware of an app that runs in the background and watches the screen corners, and launches an app or other action when the mouse enters the corner, please let me know.
Update: I found it – Hot Corners Pro, by South Bay Software. It’s shareware, but at $12.99, totally worth it, I think, if it will truly replace the functionality. Too bad it’s not built-in to Windows, though.
Next: Other things about Windows that I miss from my Mac…
Not all coding environments/IDEs are created equal
Dec 28th
One of the more difficult apps to replace was Coda, by Panic Software. Coda is a great little coding app, and while it lacks some features that many feel are utter necessities, like code folding, it was hands down my favorite coding environment. And over the years, I’ve tried a few. From text editors like BBEdit to WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver, to full-fledged IDEs like Eclipse, I’ve been around the block.
So when it came time to find something to replace Coda for the PC, I had really high expectations. Once again, I began my search with open-source apps. What I found left me cold:
- Aptana Studio:
- Komodo Edit: see Aptana Studio. I just didn’t like this one at all.
- Notepad++: This is OK, but it has some annoying issues about it that keep me from enjoying it, such as no padding around the editing window — text butts right up against the window chrome — and how it handles selections.
- EditPlus: I actually have a license for this that I bought back in 2001 or 2002 when I worked for a company that refused to even allow Macs in the door. And yet, while it has a lot of nice features, it doesn’t measure up to my standards for day-to-day coding. I do have it installed for basic text transformations, etc., but it doesn’t see daily use.
- A few others that hardly bear mentioning here. Let’s just say they failed to meet any expectations.
slow and clunky with an aggravating interface, and it didn’t interface well at all with Beanstalk, the repository/version control system I use.
About half-way through this process, I seriously began to question my decision to switch. I received some much-appreciated feedback from fellow developers, but in the end, the package I chose had to work for me, and so far I was striking out. Coda had spoiled me and I would have to accept that nothing I tried for the PC would come close to its blend of features and ease of use.
So, in the end, what did I choose? UltraEdit (UE) Studio, by IDM Computer Solutions. It’s a shareware product, but full-featured and fast. I’ve actually enjoyed using it, although I do miss my Coda. The one thing I haven’t tried setting up yet, although I know it supports SVN, is getting it to talk to my Beanstalk account. I can do without the integration if necessary, but at some point will definitely need to find something that will integrate with Beanstalk without too much rigamarole.
Next: Do I try to switch my copy of Photoshop to the PC, or do I go with open-source workalikes such as The GIMP? My decision may surprise you. Or not…