[TC]

ITunes has smart playlists and now Xcode has smart lists:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcodefirstlook.html

Scroll down to where it mentions Groups and Smart Groups.

When are we going to get this kind of thing in the Finder?

I can see so many uses for this kind of thing. I work on web sites and would love to have a smart list in each project which would automatically show me just .html files.
I know I can do this with the search but typing in .html each time isn't the same as just opening a folder. Also if this was done as a smart playlist you should have the option to display the results using their original hierarchy or just flat.

[stew]

As soon as Apple has figured out where to find it in the BeOS source code they stole from Dominic's appartment

[schwa]

This kind of functionality requires extensive metadata, which is what the BeOS FS had, and Windows Longhorn promises. MP3's have a strong set of metadata to work with (all those ID3 tags), so it's trivial for iTunes to treat your file store like a database for querying.

That said, it would be interesting for someone to try taking "baby steps" there. You could write a Cocoa GUI around some regexp file searches, and have a window that, say, displays "all files modified in the last month that end in .html". BBEdit has something like this with their file filters in the Find window.

[TC]

Originally posted by schwa:
This kind of functionality requires extensive metadata, which is what the BeOS FS had, and Windows Longhorn promises. MP3's have a strong set of metadata to work with (all those ID3 tags), so it's trivial for iTunes to treat your file store like a database for querying.

Doesn't that depend on what kind of search criteria you want to specify? If I wanted to create a smart list based on filename or date modified then that data is there already since you can use it in the finder's find.

[clarkgoble]

There are rumors that some features weren't done in time for Panther but will be out in about four or five months in a 10.4.2 version.

I believe MacRumors and a few other sites discussed this. Of course rumors being what they are, who knows. We didn't see much by way of significant upgrades with 10.2 UI beyond upgrades of some Apple applications. (X11.app, iCal, iSync, new iPhoto, iMovie)

[wulf]

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
four or five months in a 10.4.2 version

OS X 10.4 at MacWorld!

You heard it here first, folks