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Stradlater · Apr 21, 2005, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by osxisfun

yah that is the major plus that does not get reported enough.

does anyone know if they spotlight SDK would allow for things like 3rd parties adding:

PS (launch photoshop)
M tom (mail tom)

etc....

If you search for "tom," you can mail him from the spotlight search results (as demo'd in the online movie), though I'm not positive you can do this without using the mouse.

As far as "PS" goes...if you make an alias of Photoshop and name it "PS," that would take care of the functionality you desire.

Stradlater · Apr 21, 2005, 11:48 AM

There's no reason to turn Spotlight off.

1. It doesn't waste resources in the background (it only indexes briefly when files are saved).
2. It works well as a launcher -- faster than navigating Finder through the folders you organized so well (never so well as to not benefit from Spotlight, though).
--open applications
--play a specific song without switching to and navigating/filtering iTunes
--mail someone
--immediately watch a slideshow of a set of pictures in the search results
--immediately add pictures to iPhoto
--etc. etc. etc. (these are only things I could gather from the online movie, there are probably many more uses)

3. It searches content, people! Content of not only text files, but .pdf and more! As you get more and more files on your HD, you might forget the name of one in a long list. Instead of opening file-after-file while searching for it, you can search for SOMETHING you remember in the file's contents. Bam.

osxisfun · Apr 21, 2005, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Stradlater

If you search for "tom," you can mail him from the spotlight search results (as demo'd in the online movie), though I'm not positive you can do this without using the mouse.

As far as "PS" goes...if you make an alias of Photoshop and name it "PS," that would take care of the functionality you desire.

Agent69 · Apr 21, 2005, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn

I think we're all just dumbfounded that someone wouldn't want -or need- to search for something. Are you saying you have never used the "Find file" function on the Mac?

The only searching I do on my Mac is this:

find -name ".DS_Store" -delete

Stradlater · Apr 21, 2005, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by Agent69

The only searching I do on my Mac is this:

find -name ".DS_Store" -delete

And the other Spotlight uses I outlined above? You'd never need to do that?

An additional one I believe is in the movie: You can search for a specific picture and send it through email all through spotlight. No navigating to the folder, opening a new mail message, dragging.

osxisfun · Apr 21, 2005, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Stradlater

And the other Spotlight uses I outlined above? You'd never need to do that?

An additional one I believe is in the movie: You can search for a specific picture and send it through email all through spotlight. No navigating to the folder, opening a new mail message, dragging.

cool stuff. i am really looking forward to how 3rd party devs will trick out spotlight even more.

macmike42 · Apr 21, 2005, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by JCS

A lot of it is also wrong. Just one more week and the NDAs will be lifted...

Perhaps so. I hope I was clear from the beginning that I was only making educated guesses based on my existing knowledge. I have zero experience with Tiger and Spotlight.

Agent69 · Apr 21, 2005, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by Stradlater

And the other Spotlight uses I outlined above? You'd never need to do that?

I don't think so. I keep the files in my home directory well organized. But like I said, just because I have no need for Spotlight doesn't make it bad, but I would like to turn it off if possible. Of course, I might be able to get the same effect by telling it not to index any drives, which someone else pointed out here.

By the way, does anyone know if Spotlight automatically indexes external firewire/flash/USB drives, or does it ask first?

Stradlater · Apr 21, 2005, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by Agent69

I don't think so. I keep the files in my home directory well organized. But like I said, just because I have no need for Spotlight doesn't make it bad, but I would like to turn it off if possible. Of course, I might be able to get the same effect by telling it not to index any drives, which someone else pointed out here.

By the way, does anyone know if Spotlight automatically indexes external firewire/flash/USB drives, or does it ask first?

From the site:

Perform a Spotlight search on network-based Home directories in addition to searching local hard drives.

Plural...so probably, considering the pic of the PrefPane only shows exclusions, not inclusions.

VValdo · Apr 21, 2005, 10:13 PM

Thanks for the good discussion everyone...

Originally Posted by bewebste

These security issues are cleary addressed in the Spotlight technology PDF from Apple's site (page 14):

To sum up, Spotlight is running as root, but when another process queries it for results, it will only return results the process has permissions for, so user A won't get results from user B's files when they do a search.

This is interesting. The next question is of course, when you delete a file, is it immediately pulled out of the "index"? Is it "secure" deleted from the index? If someone were using the secure (wipe over the info with random data multiple times) empty trash feature, but it remained in the index... well, that wouldn't be so secure... I would assume apple did this right, but then again, they're swapping passwords to disk now so..

Now not being overly familiar with HFS+ and how this indexing stuff might be working, there may not be a seperate file somewhere to delete, ie, the indexing information may be contained under-the-hood in the file system itself. I guess the question would be-- wherever the index is, and whatever format it might be in.. is it securely wiped or are you leaving some kind of record of your financies behind to be reconstructed by whomever you sell your computer to in five years

W

jasong · Apr 21, 2005, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by VValdo

The next question is of course, when you delete a file, is it immediately pulled out of the "index"?

I hope so, Spotlight would be pretty useless if it returned non-existant results

MartiNZ · Apr 21, 2005, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by osxisfun

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stradlater
If you search for "tom," you can mail him from the spotlight search results (as demo'd in the online movie), though I'm not positive you can do this without using the mouse.

As far as "PS" goes...if you make an alias of Photoshop and name it "PS," that would take care of the functionality you desire.

indeed. That, with a bit of effort, should take care of the lack of 'learning' a la Quicksilver that Spotlight presents.

VValdo · Apr 22, 2005, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by jasong

I hope so, Spotlight would be pretty useless if it returned non-existant results

Well, I guess what I'm asking is if it's wiped off perminently or if it's just unlinked or marked as available as with normal file content. If it's overwritten immediately, is it done in some secure fashion or is it just marked as available space...etc.

W