Path Finder
Encyclopedia
Path Finder is a Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 file browser developed by Cocoatech. First released simultaneously with the public release of Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...


, it replicates or integrates most of the features of the Finder
Macintosh Finder
The Finder is the default file manager used on Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems; it is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications...

, but introduces additional functionality similar to that found in Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...

, Norton Commander
Norton Commander
Norton Commander was a prototypical orthodox file manager , written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing . NC is a file manager which provides a text user interface on top of DOS. It was officially produced by Symantec between 1986 and 1998...

 and other third party file browsers developed for a variety of platforms.

Some of Path Finder's features not found in the Finder include a dual-pane browser, terminal, tabs, StuffIt
StuffIt
StuffIt is a family of computer software utilities for archiving and compressing files on the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms: it was originally produced for the Macintosh. An old version for Linux and Sun Solaris 2.7 or later is also available...

 compression, an active process viewer, an application launcher, and .dmg disc images creation tools.

Path Finder's functionality can be extended through a plugin architecture and ships with plugins for Subversion support and a hex
Binary file
A binary file is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in binary form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, computer document files containing formatted text...

 viewer, among others.

The interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

 of Path Finder follows the common navigational file manager paradigm, also called the browser paradigm, as opposed to the spatial
Spatial file manager
In computing, a spatial file manager is a file manager that uses a spatial metaphor to represent files and folders as if they are real physical objects.-Concepts:The base requirements of a spatial file manager are:...

style. Most operations take place in a single window, although more windows or tabs can be opened. The interface can further be customized by enabling or disabling various panels and/or their corresponding functionality.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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