A detailed look at the presentation of folders and files in the Finder, GUI, Terminal, and FileManager in different iCloud options.
Finder
Consistency is an overriding design principle for the human interface. However you use iCloud storage, it adopts different behaviours from those of the Finder. Apple needs to evolve the iCloud interface to improve it, and to empower the user.
Telling what a file is – whether plain text, Unicode UTF-8, 32-bit code, and so on – can be hard. Just use a little magic, free in the command tool ‘file’. Includes Swift code to access magic numbers.
Simple tools to preserve versions in documents, whether copied to an external drive, NAS, cloud storage including iCloud and Dropbox, even sent by email.
Support for deep copying of documents, and a tool to preserve versions across iCloud Drive enable you to rely on versions in your work.
macOS versioning is sophisticated and valuable, but let down by flaws in implementation. Can we fix some of its problems?
Changing permissions is straightforward in the Finder or command line. But how would you go about changing a file/folder’s owner or group?
Setting permissions in Terminal is simple. This basic introduction explains how to understand the notation used, and save yourself time fiddling in the Finder.
Creating and resolving Finder aliases is straightforward in Swift: here’s how alisma does it.
Create a Finder alias from the command line, and resolve them to full paths – a new free command tool, with source.
The Eclectic Light Company 