setting default application for mac

[rant] [soapbox]

I hate Finder which would create a ton of garbage files, notably
the annoying .DS_Store and various ._. injection files on filesystems
other than HFS+.

I hate people zipping those garbage in tarball too.

I noticed I was doing this before, because Apple's /usr/bin/tar
would automatically bundle those shit into your tarball. I found
this by unzipping it on Linux...

So I removed my /usr/bin/tar, and added a symlink pointing to
/usr/local/gtar which is built by MacPorts (but now Homebrew)

I don't know if Apple had fixed that. I would be glad if Apple
stopped generating garbage, and then I don't have to patch it
with GNU tar if that's the case.

Anyway, that's why I don't use Finder at all. I hate it so much...
Definitely the top hate with Apple. Because that forbids me from
using a GUI application to manage my files.

Previously, I use PathFinder as a replacement. Sadly my trial is
outdated for a while, and I don't want to buy it, because I don't
like PathFinder at all. I use it only because it won't generate
.DS_Store. This is worth a lot, but... not worth enough if it can't
really avoid .DS_Store (e.g. accidentally hit Finder), and itself is
not a good tool for me.

Though I hesitated to say this, because there are Apple fans
would say that I'm poisoned by Microsoft (actually they did
say this while I was talking about this a few years ago), I still
feel Windows Explorer is a lot more superior than any GUI file
manager I tried on Mac. I can't even sort files lexically while
putting all directories on top in Finder. I have directories filled
with thousands of files and some directories. This makes it soooo
hard to find a directory in such directories!

And so then I am using muCommander for now. But... this is
even worse than PathFinder actually. PathFinder is at least
integrated or styled with Finder or other Mac software.
muCommander looks like an alien on Mac...

But I just didn't know if I have other choices. Maybe TotalFinder.
It has a kernel module that can really avoid creating .DS_Store.
Yes, kernel module! That's why I haven't tried it... but it
looks so promising and so good that fulfills a lot of my need.
See, folders on top! Apple should buy it and install it as default.

I won't be too surprised that if I would regret and cry loudly:
"I should have tried this long long before", but... well, actually
I don't need file manager a lot, or maybe it's just I'm used to it.
Anyway, I haven't tried it...

* * *

ok then, finally we can enter today's topic. Since muCommander
cannot let me pick default application for a certain file, and I don't
want to open Finder at all. I need someway to set default
applications... TextEdit is not that bad, but it's just useless for me,
and so do Preview, iTune, QuickTime, and various Apple's softwares.

I need to change them, I need to read my .txt files in Sublime Text 2.
TextEdit simply can't display the Unicode in my .txt, don't ask me why.
TextWrangler didn't have enough line space for me to read T.Chinese.

I found RCDefaultApp 2.1, this works great, and it's very simple.

* * *

I don't get why I need so much customization to make Mac work
with me, but this is also true when I was using Windows. So I guess
it's not a big deal... as long as it's solvable!

But .DS_Store is really hard to solve, that's why it's my top hate
about Mac. Kernel module? You must be kidding :(

Anyway, once I found TotalFinder is totally working for me,
I think I would buy one. $15 is not expensive, and much cheaper
than PathFinder ($40), so why not? Maybe I was just afraid
if that didn't work for me... I wonder if there's one that existed...

[/soapbox] [/rant]