Hidden files in OSX have been an issue for developers using version control for an age now, and there have always been solutions to the problem in the form of third party applications or the command line.
After starting to work on leopard again a few months ago I found a nice way of packaging this to allow you to quickly switch between show/hide without the need for browse windows or the command line.
The idea is to open up Automator and create a new work flow. Starting from a blank work flow add the ‘Run command’ action and use the following entry.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
Once added you can simply save work flow as a plug-in, named “Show Hidden Files”. You can now show hidden files using the alt click, automator menu. Do the same again, replacing the TRUE with FALSE, and save as”Show Hidden Files” And that’s it… No more command prompts or script editors, just alt click…