For those who don't already know, the Inspector is a variation on the "Get Info" window that appears when you select a file and choose "Get Info" from the File menu (or press "command-i"). To call the Inspector, add the "option" key to the Get Info call — in File->Get Info, holding "option" will cause the text to change to "Show Inspector," or you can simply press "command-option-i." The Inspector differs from the Get Info window in that it shows dynamic information based on whatever file you select. That is to say, Get Info will only show you information about the file you just selected, but the Inspector will update the information dynamically as other files are selected. It's unbelievably handy. Or at least it was.
(click image for larger view)
There has been a bug in Tiger's Inspector that has persisted right up until the latest 10.4.7 release. In Tiger, the Inspector updates its display to show the information for any given file as normal, but the permissions information — the owner and read/write access of a given file — is not updated and remains the same as the originally selected file. The only way to get an accurate view of the permissions is to close and then reopen the Inspector on the given file, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the Inspector in the first place. I've written about this bug since the inception of 10.4. I've filed bug reports and feedback to Apple. Yet the bug remains, and it looks like it's here to stay. With Mac OS X 10.5 right around the corner and Tiger in its final stages I hold little hope that this bug will ever get fixed.
(click image for larger view)
It's a real shame. Permissions inspection has been a remarkably helpful tool for me in the GUI, and I miss it a lot. But it also speaks to Apple's lack of quality control in Tiger, and particularly in the Finder. I've been bitching about the Tiger Finder for over a year now. It was one of the initial impetuses for this blog, in fact. I'm more than a little surprised and disappointed to find that a bug perhaps not of major importance to most users, but still one of significance, particularly to power users and admins — an inaccurate view of data — persists in the Tiger Finder to this day, over one year later. I can only hope things improve in 10.5.
Inspector: How It's Supposed to Look
(click image for larger view)
Strangely, I've heard very few people on the Big Bad Internet weigh in on this issue. I'm curious to know if anyone out there besides me has a problem with this. Am I the only one who uses — or attempts to use — this feature? Am I the only one who's bothered by the broken Inspector? Am I the only one complaining about this?
Feel free to sound off in the comments.