{"id":30809,"date":"2020-11-25T16:57:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T21:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=30809"},"modified":"2021-01-04T16:32:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T21:32:12","slug":"hazel-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/25\/hazel-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Hazel 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Guyot<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Hazel<\/a> is a classic Mac automation tool which we last covered several years ago for version 4<\/a>. This week Hazel is back with version 5, a major update which brings the tool out of System Preferences for the first time.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Hazel 5’s interface combines the folders and rules views into a single multi-column layout. This change makes the app much more fluid to navigate, and the new ability to group folders makes organization far nicer as well. While editing rules you can now detach the editor view from the main window, making side-by-side editing of multiple rules possible for the first time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2020-12-09): Paul Kim<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The most obvious thing you’ll probably notice is that Hazel is no longer a preference pane, instead shipping in an app form factor. Why? The main reason is Apple. If you missed my post on this topic<\/a>, in short, Apple screwed over preference panes in Catalina. The result is a buggy mess and I’ve seen almost no improvement on that front since then. It seemed clear to me that preference panes were a developmental dead end.<\/p>

I had already been planning on releasing a version 5 so I was prepared to make some major changes. Problem was, I had to make sure I released 5.0 around when Apple’s next OS (now known as Big Sur) would arrive. Why? Because any Big Sur compatibility work put into Hazel 4 would most likely not be usable in version 5. Partly because of the major changes between the two but mostly because many of the issues that affect preference panes since Catalina aren’t a problem for apps. I could either do double the work or cut my losses and do a big push for version 5 in the time available. The downside is that the conversion to an app displaced other features I had planned. Some of these will make it into point releases but the bigger ones may have to wait until 6.0.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: Hazel 5.0 Release Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n