default install tree

[lynndavidnewton]

I'm using a Mac (macOS Sonoma 14.1.1) and Finale 27.0.3.160

This probably falls in the category of a beginner question because it involves installation parameters, but I've had Finale on various Macs for a very long time (since 2004), and I've tinkered with it a lot.

My main question is this: Does Finale install user-level stuff by default in some subdirectory of $HOME/Music?

$HOME/Music is an essential macOS-supplied directory, the location needed for Apple Music, and where all ripped CDs and the like reside. It's never occurred to me as far as I can remember to create $HOME/Finale or $HOME/Logic. My system has $HOME/Music/FInale and $HOME/Music/Logic, and I think those directory trees are what were installed with the apps that use them, though over the years I have also created some symlinks and also changed a couple of things because I hate macOS's $HOME/Documents tree.

I suppose if I had it to do over again, I'd leave the defaults where they are and create symlinks to get to where I need to be.

I just checked $HOME/Documents/Finale FIles and see that except for some backup files (all with names blahblah.bak for many/all of my existing projects) I have almost nothing.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was for many years a Unix and Linux software engineer, so I'm quite used to dealing with the system at the shell level and prefer it, but realize that this sometimes can get me in trouble.

A supplementary question: Do I rightly understand that migrating to Finale 27.4, the latest version will cost me money? (Which I'm not exactly happy about. I can't imagine there are any new features that I need badly enough to keep paying for the product.)

Thank you for your patience and kind feedback.

[BuonTempi]

My main question is this: Does Finale install user-level stuff by default in some subdirectory of $HOME/Music?

No. You can see (and set) all the locations that Finale uses in Settings > Folders. Finale uses ~/Documents/Finale Files for backups, autosaves and the default save location.

Logic does, or did, use ~/Music/Logic for its files. That may have changed now.

Do I rightly understand that migrating to Finale 27.4, the latest version will cost me money?

27.4 is a free update if you already have 27. Migrating to 27 from an earlier version will cost you; but very little. You've just missed the $65 sale price: it's $99 now.

I hate macOS's $HOME/Documents tree.

What is it you hate about it? It's one of the good organizational folders from NextStep, (like the well named and well-ordered sub-folders in Library), which Apple is slowly doing away with, in favour of abstracted locations and random lettering.

[lynndavidnewton]

Ah yes, that Settings > Folders window. I used that long ago to move things in the first place.

I can't fully explain what I dislike about the ~/Documents tree. It started years ago when I had to use Microsoft Office apps and found it was putting my files in locations that seemed weird to me at the time.

I tend to organize things more by projects, which often means that I mix file types, including plain text files.
I'm sure this is because of my Linux/Unix background and being accustomed to defining exactly where I want to put things myself.

I'm glad to know I can get Finale 27.4 without cost. I'll update that today.

[BuonTempi]

I tend to organize things more by projects, which often means that I mix file types, including plain text files.
I'm sure this is because of my Linux/Unix background and being accustomed to defining exactly where I want to put things myself.

Yes, most people probably organize work by project -- and all my project folders are under Documents. I dislike it when an app creates its own folder in my Documents folder; but I rarely put things in those myself.

Surely, unless you're root, you are limited to where you can put stuff on traditional Unix...?

[lynndavidnewton]

> Surely, unless you're root, you are limited to where you can put stuff on traditional Unix...?

Ha! File permissions were about the only thing holding people back from disaster in the old days. (I started with AT&T Unix System 2 in about 1983, about eight years before we even had graphics.) Newer systems have a lot of stuff built in to keep users from aiming shotguns at their feet.

There used to be a list that circulated defining the progressive properties of a Unix guru. One of them said: "Can work around superuser restrictions but no longer needs to." That was me at one time.

I worked 90% of the time on crash-and-burn test systems. If something went horribly wrong, I could just rebuild.

I even set two boards in beta test on fire in one day once (due to a design flaw, not my fincompetence). The result was that the company withdrew the project.

Meanwhile, I spent part of yesterday moving many files around to better locations in preparation for configuring a newly purchased NAS. Now all my Finale projects are in the default path "$HOME/Documents/Finale Files". FWIW, I have a network of four active Macs, and I need to make sure all the data I have distributed across systems is reliably safe.

This problem is resolved as far as I'm concerned, so no one needs to feel obliged to comment further, though open discussion can be fun, too.