Quicksilver is a utility app for

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

. Originally developed as proprietary

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the ...

Nicholas Jitkoff Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and i ...

of Blacktree, Inc., it is now an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

project hosted on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

. Quicksilver is essentially a graphical

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

for the macOS

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

, allowing users to use the keyboard to rapidly perform tasks such as launching other apps, manipulating files, or sending

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

. It is similar to the macOS applications LaunchBar and

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, but uses a different interaction paradigm. Because of its flexible interface and extensibility, Quicksilver has been called one of the top productivity applications on the Mac.

Features

Interface

Invoked with a

keyboard shortcut computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or ...

, Quicksilver has three panes, into which the user can enter an object, an action, and an optional attribute—analogous to creating a sentence with a subject, verb, and object. Quicksilver is a background application that runs while the operating system is running, maintaining a "catalog" of files and objects on the user's computer. By applying

incremental search In computing, incremental search, hot search, incremental find or real-time suggestions is a user interface interaction method to progressively search for and filter through text. As the user types text, one or more possible matches for the text ...

as the user types, Quicksilver predicts the filename or action typed by the user and automatically selects the object. Quicksilver uses a priority system based on prior usage to "learn" the user's habits, ultimately requiring only a few letters for the most commonly selected objects.

Extensibility

Triggers

Quicksilver allows users to define "triggers," which perform a specific command (direct object/action/indirect object combination) whenever a customizable keyboard shortcut is pressed. For instance, if a command opening the Documents folder is bound to the F7 key, this hotkey would trigger that action regardless of what application the user is currently in.

Plug-ins

Quicksilver has a built-in plug-in architecture, allowing the user to choose and install plug-ins providing integration with a specific program, interface, or new feature. For example, plug-ins exist for sending email via

Mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

without opening the application or manipulating images via text commands.

Flexibility

Because

shell script A shell script is a computer program designed to be run by a Unix shell, a command-line interpreter. The various dialects of shell scripts are considered to be scripting languages. Typical operations performed by shell scripts include file man ...

s and

AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system aut ...

s can be stored in the catalog, any function which can be performed with a script can be tied to Quicksilver through either the command window or triggers. Because most Apple-native applications have extensive scripting libraries, many common tasks can easily be performed from Quicksilver. For instance,

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

can be told to play or pause, increase or decrease the current track's rating, or skip to the previous or next track. There are various visual interfaces for Quicksilver, Constellation Menus supporting

mouse gestures In computing, a pointing device gesture or mouse gesture (or simply gesture) is a way of combining pointing device or finger movements and clicks that the software recognizes as a specific computer event and responds to accordingly. They can ...

, and a Notification Hub which supports Growl.

Alchemy

Experimental

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...

builds of Quicksilver, known as ''Alchemy'', have many major changes. * Triggers are moving to a separate product, called ''Catalyst'' * All the little frameworks are being joined into one big one called ''Crucible''. This includes extensions and core functionality that most applications and plugins will use. This is currently called ''QSBase.framework'' * The preferences will be greatly simplified. There will be Extras-style advanced preferences for the fiddly options. * Plugins are going to be hidden from most users, they'll activate themselves automatically or be installable from the web * β5X Plugins are incompatible. These builds have four major components: ''Crucible'', a framework with extension to

AppKit AppKit (formally Application Kit) is a graphical user interface toolkit. It initially served as the UI framework for NeXTSTEP. Along with Foundation and Display PostScript, it became one of the core parts of the OpenStep specification of APIs. ...

and tools common to all Alchemy applications; ''elements'', a framework supporting the plugin architecture; ''quicksilver'', a command window driven launcher; and ''catalyst'', which triggers a preference pane.

History

Nicholas Jitkoff started development of Quicksilver in 2003. He released several versions to the public until 2006 and maintained an

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for the tool from the beginning. On October 30, 2007, the source code for Quicksilver was made available via

Google Code Google Developers (previously Google Code) , application programming interfaces (APIs), and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs—including discussion groups and blogs for developers usin ...

. In November 2009, development shifted to using

. Quicksilver is now developed by a team of volunteers known collectively as ''QSApp''. At the end of 2010, the new website QSApp.com was launched, with the aim of unifying and collating all of Quicksilver's fragmented builds, plugins and support groups. Since its launch, the site has included a new Plugins Repository, Wiki and Downloads section. After several months of development, the milestone version β59 was released. On March 25, 2013, Quicksilver v1.0 was released after ten years of beta testing. On March 25, 2022, Quicksilver v2.0 was released, which runs natively on Apple Silicon (M1) Macs. Quicksilver's

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...

is based on the

alchemical symbol Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this pag ...

for mercury, "quicksilver" being an archaic name for the element.

References

External links

* {{Official website MacOS-only free software Application launchers