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Monday's Mac Gadget
by John F. Braun

Need to Manage Your Trash? Give Compost a Chance!
March 7th, 2005

Compost 1.5.1 ($5 Shareware)
Greg Weston

The Mac wasn't the first computer whose operating system incorporated a Trash, but it is arguably one of the first to make the concept available to the masses. The Trash hasn't received much attention from Apple since the very first invocation, however, other than giving the user the ability to empty it themselves, or showing a bulge when something was in it. Mac OS X changed the trash can to a wire wastebasket, but if you're looking for some really new features, you should consider a utility like Compost.

Compost is a Mac OS X Preference Pane that greatly enhances the Trash functionality. The first set of parameters help automatically empty the Trash so you don't have to, using a few different criteria. You can choose to delete files that have been in the Trash for a certain length of time, limit the maximum size of items in the trash, or try to maintain a amount of free space on your disk. You can also fine tune certain aspects of emptying the Trash.


Compost Gives You Maximum Control Over the Trash

You can enable deletion of locked items without pressing extra keys, have empty folders deleted immediately, and empty the Trash securely. The secure empty feature actually uses the UNIX srm command to make sure that deleted files can't be recovered, so be careful! Compost also comes with some handy add-ons. There's a Contextual Menu plugin so you can immediately delete items without having to put them in the Trash. You can also configure a hotkey that provides more detailed Trash Info than normally provided by Mac OS X. Plus, you can apply the aforementioned size management options on a per-volume basis.

So take your Trash to a new level, and be sure to give Compost a try.

Have any other Mac OS X goodies that keep your system clean? Send an e-mail to John and he'll give it a look.

Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs.

John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at

You can also Post Your Comments below.

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Observer Comments

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:59 pm Subject: Besides the Lisa, which other pre-Mac machines had Trash?

Wow, I guess you're right - the Xerox Star had a Wastebasket in 1981! However, there are obviously many innovations in the Lisa (and Mac) that did not exist in the Star, such as the menu bar at the top of the screen, etc.. Still, the similarity is notable - I didn't realize that Mac-style scroll bars and the size box came from the Star. It's not surprising, I guess, since several key Xerox alumni left for Apple to make the Lisa!

http://www.macos.utah.edu/Documentation/MacOSXClasses/macosxone/gui.html


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Close Name:John F. Braun -   TMO Staff Posts: 233 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:52 am Subject: Great Mac History Page

Guest, you came across the same site that I did when researching the history of the Trash and Mac OS. Another page on the site gives a great history of Mac OS since 1.0. Brought back some great memories of stuff that was really cool when it was introduced (wow color!) but we now take for granted.


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Close Name:Guest
Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:00 am Subject: ack !!

i've checked compost out..but i am in need of 'something' that will lock the trash can and prevent it from being emptied...is there such a beast on the planet?


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