[Usability] Re: Alternative Utensil

["David Adam Bordoley" <bordoley msu edu>]

> Message: 5
> From: Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>
> To: merchan baton phys lsu edu
> Cc: Murray Cumming Comneon com, aes gnome org,
> 	rosselli ling unipi it,
> 	"desktop-devel-list gnome org" <desktop-devel-list gnome org>,
> 	usability gnome org
> Date: 03 Jun 2003 21:17:57 +0200
> Subject: [Usability] Re: Alternative Utensil 
>
> On Tue, 2003-06-03 at 16:01, Gregory Merchan wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 03, 2003 at 03:45:16PM +0200, Murray Cumming Comneon com wrote:
> > > > a spatial file manager
> > > 
> > > I give in. I don't know what a "spatial" file manager is. I must be stupid. 
> >
> > That's not stupidity. That's just ignorance, which is easily rectified.
> > (You might want to make sure Flash is turned off in your browser, if
> > you have that.) Here's a link: 
> >
> >   http://www.arstechnica.com/paedia/f/finder/finder-3.html
>
> However, it should be noted that this article describes the spatial
> finder in two pages, and then spends a lot of time describing something
> very close to Nautilus.

I really don't want to get involved here but... 

Just for the sake of accuracy, in that article he spends about 2 pages 
describing why the main file manager interface ought to be a spatial one, 
then goes on to describe an alternate interface that could also be available 
to more advance users who are more accustomed to file paths. One could 
probably easily argue that this "advanced" interface should be rolled into 
the desktop web browser and the desktop icons et al. should provide a 
spatial interface which is preferable for most novice/intermediate users 
according to the author [1]. 

/me refuses to further comment. 

dave 

[1] Though I agree with the author I have about zero interest in getting 
into a flamewar again about this. Just wanted to clarify the link.