Mac Irritation of the Day
Yet another update that requires restart, but Apple - like Microsoft before them - is slowly numbing me to that. No, the irritation is with Safari. I had to drive my wife to work today, because one of the cars is in the shop. I set the Mac to reboot and took off. I came home to see Safari prompting me "do you really want to quit?", and restart timed out on that.
Sigh. Who died and made Safari god? When I tell my system to reboot, why does a browser get to veto that with a useless dialog box?
Comments
Re: Mac Irritation of the Day
[ Troy Brumley] February 12, 2009 9:40:39.728
Comment by Troy Brumley
Well, if I have a web app open that has data to save, much like a traditional word processing or spread sheet application, I definitely want to be asked if it's ok to close. Web browsers are no longer reliably "read only" applications.
Additionally, VW used to misbehave in the area of system shutdown. I forget the details, but I do remember that you insisted that engineering change the behavior.
Re: Mac Irritation of the Day
[ James Robertson] February 12, 2009 10:13:49.369
Comment by James Robertson
When I tell the system to reboot, I just want it to reboot. I don't want various apps nagging me. If I screw that up, it's my problem.
software for the rest of us
[ Troy Brumley] February 12, 2009 15:14:09.735
Comment by Troy Brumley
Yeah, but you are in a minority there. Most people need a bit of protection and will complain more loudly (and in more legitimate pain) if the system shoots their applications with unsaved data.
One problem I've had from time to time is that I'm a bit too quick on closing the lid after I've started a shutdown (I don't always sleep my MBP) and so I sometimes end up annoyed when I open the lid and the Mac completes its shutdown :)
For the Rest of us?
[ James Robertson] February 12, 2009 17:13:03.281
Comment by James Robertson
It's not friendly in any way, shape, or form for me to ask a machine to reboot, get up, go off to do something, and come back to find out that it bailed on the reboot because some stupid program had different ideas. It just wastes everyone's time.
Re: Mac Irritation of the Day
[ Troy Brumley] February 13, 2009 9:04:55.292
Comment by Troy Brumley
The majority of users will side against you. Users complain about protection until it saves their backside.
Two Things
[W^L+] February 13, 2009 11:22:56.063
First, you're right that users should think before they shutdown, but we don't always do so. I agree that it gets irritating, but that kind of thing can save you hours of work. I often have different things open in each of my six desktops. I also sometimes forget something is still in progress before I decide to shut down. I can't even guess how much grief I've avoided because of this feature of all modern desktop operating systems.
Second: sudo init 6 should take care of it. Or sudo init 0 to completely shut down. You have to open a terminal to do this, though. (Works in Linux.)
double standard?
[ Troy Brumley] February 13, 2009 18:26:24.020
Comment by Troy Brumley
I just did a quick test and VisualWorks (VW 7.6 NC) actually cancels the shutdown without giving me a chance to say "go ahead, allow the shutdown." Is that better or worse than Safari's behavior? If so how and why? :)
and another thing
[ Troy Brumley] February 13, 2009 18:31:10.777
Comment by Troy Brumley
I'm feeling a bit like Columbo here. I tried the same test with BF up and I get the VisualWorks canceled shutdown message but BF closes.
Rocks, glass houses, etc. ;)
I'm testing a few other apps on the Mac, but I'm of the school of thought that says protect the user here.
and another thing
[ Troy Brumley] February 13, 2009 18:34:42.625
Comment by Troy Brumley
I'm feeling a bit like Columbo here. I tried the same test with BF up and I get the VisualWorks canceled shutdown message but BF closes.
Rocks, glass houses, etc. ;)
I'm testing a few other apps on the Mac, but I'm of the school of thought that says protect the user here.