Comments on: I’d forgotten how awesome Sherlock is

By: Peter Hosey

Peter Hosey — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:52:04 +0000

But I actually still prefer this flawed implementation to having widgets on my screen that I only use once in a while. There’s nothing in Dashboard that I need to see or have access to on a regular basis. So I really don’t want them taking up my screen real estate.

Perhaps. But Sherlock solves the same dilemma by being a real application: it’s running when I need it, because I’ve just launched it with a quick QS(shl), and not running when I don’t need it. And QS, being all-keyboard, is certainly faster than hitting a hotkey and then switching to the mouse to hit the Translation button.

By: Simone Manganelli

Simone Manganelli — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:26:37 +0000

Actually, I've found Dashboard's separate UI layer to be much more desirable than the alternative. The only problem is that when you haven't used Dashboard in a while, it can take up to 30 seconds to even appear, and then longer to let the widgets themselves to refresh. (BTW, I have filed a bug on this problem with Dashboard.) But I actually still prefer this flawed implementation to having widgets on my screen that I only use once in a while. There's nothing in Dashboard that I need to see or have access to on a regular basis. So I really don't want them taking up my screen real estate.

By: Peter Hosey

Peter Hosey — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:51:49 +0000

ssp: Translation Service looks handy. Unfortunately, I'd be using it in Mail, which doesn't work properly with Services (it inserts the general pasteboard, rather than the service's output pasteboard). I'd have to use the regular-application front end, which doesn't look significantly different from Sherlock.

All the same, a very nice find. Thanks!

By: ssp

ssp — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:30:11 +0000

I haven’t really used it but there is an app called Translation Service whose name is quite self-describing. That should give you the features you want without any annoying UI. I imagine it to be particularly useful when browsing the web thanks to Safari’s great ability to run Services on the selection in a web page.

By: Peter Hosey

Peter Hosey — Mon, 28 May 2007 02:17:55 +0000

I’ve never liked Dashboard, just as I never liked Sherlock 2. In fact, Dashboard is worse—at least Sherlock 2 operated on the same UI layer as everything else.

You can tell that I think of that as a drawback to Dashboard.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 28 May 2007 01:48:25 +0000

Or you could use the dashboard widget?