Grand Perspective for Mac OS X →

I don’t very often big up other people’s software, but I just found this from a magazine article that mentioned it in such an off-hand manner that I had to check it out.

Grand Perspective will (quickly) analyse a folder on your Mac and it will graphically show you how big all of the files in it are in relation to each other. For such a simple and directed application, it is surprisingly configurable with a plethora of colour schemes to choose from (the picky amongst you can configure your own, although minus points for not giving different shading options for the visually impaired), and methods to colour your files, by folder, extension, file type, level in the folder hierarchy and even by name should you wish.

Having played with this for a few minutes I was impressed. Playing with it for longer has only increased my amazement. Behind the simple and straightforward interface lies a lot of thought and a rich set of behaviours. Having found the large, hidden, file that was consuming a disproportionate amount of space after a rogue application crashed, I went on discover just what it was that took up the 90GB of personal data that I have amassed over my nearly 20 years of being a computer user. Lots of photos and lots of videos. And that is before I have digitised the photos I took in my school years that still sit in shoe-boxes carefully packed away. Maybe I will still need that external disk I used with my old mac after all.