no worries Grant, and I hope I didn't offend - definitely not my intention!
Hi Grant,
I'm lucky enough to enjoy both GUI and command-line interfaces, and am always exploring which method of manipulation works better for me for a given task.
for example, I really prefer Finder for viewing and organizing my folder and file hierarchy, and also have experienced that when deleting a folder/directory with tens or hundreds of thousands of files, that the "rm" command is much, much speadier than dragging the folder to the trash and emptying in Finder.
one advantage I've stumbled across in using the "defaults write" command is when adding a new configuration entry to an application config file (plist file usually? always?). If one is lucky enough to find where someone has published a "defaults write" command somewhere on the web, I can add the functionality. For example, using the "focus follows mouse" ability in Terminal is a long-time favorite of mine, but if someone hadn't published it on the web, I'd never have known the syntax myself, for either "defaults write" or PropertyEditor!
my biggest gripe about "defaults write" and the plist files that it modifies is that there is no "dictionary" of available "hooks". I used to script with AppleScript a lot for a while, and really liked the AppleScript Dictionary required to be included in each Mac application.
ahhh, I'm beginning to taste the soap again! or is it Cool-Aid?
cheers,
Roy