Re: [Usability] New way of accessing software (WAS: Re: Big Panel menus (32x32))

["Manuel Amador (Rudd-O)" <amadorm usm edu ec>]

Mensaje citado por Daniel Borgmann <spark-mailinglists web de>:

> File management will probably become more metadata like soon. I'm not
> sure how far Medusa goes into this direction but it might be a good way
> to support it whether the filesystem can do it or not (this is not
> something we should simply ignore, because reformatting your harddrive
> is no fun. Microsoft will certainly face the same problem). 
> Nautilus will have to support this sooner or later anyway and I hope
> that this will be kept in mind for further development. For example I'm
> a bit worried that placing user files on the desktop (as some usability
> people are suggestion) might make it more tricky to switch to a
> hierarchy-less system. 

Yes, I think at some point in the future, folders will stop being folders and
start being some sort of categories.  This will enable much richer queries:
Today:
Documents/
  Images/
    Pictures/
      Jane/
        Jane and me in the beach.jpg

Tomorrow:
  Jane and me in the beach.jpg:
  Categories:
     Documents
     Images
     Pictures
     Jane

You will probably still be able to browse in a "by folder"-like fashion.  But
now  you will be able to locate files in "Year" folders, in "Theme" folders, in
"Artist" folders, in "Document type" folders, so the minute you remember a
particular property of a file you're trying to locate, you can narrow down the
browse set very quickly.

And at least the Linux file system already supports metadata in the form of EAs
(extended attributes).  Methinks GNOME should start using them, and falling back
to the current metadata scheme where EAs aren't available.

Files on the desktop could be in the "Desktop" category =)  That way we won't be
fighting over where to place the desktop directory!

Medusa should get incremental indexing, which will need medusa to monitor the
file systems for changes.

 For example, while
> > XFS supports cool stuff, the software on Linux doesn't take advantage of
> it,
> > because "it won't work if the user runs on ext2". Who cares? Gnome should
> be
> > steering innovation

YES!  And if EAs aren't supported in ext2, have GNOME fall back on
nautilus-metafile.xml for those volumes - even more, tell the user that "the
volume this file is on doesn't support this operation" with a More... button,
explaining why.

> > said "ok, we need to add this functionality" and they do it. Same thing
> > BSDs, IRIX etc will have to do if they want a *modern* DE ported to their
> > OS. They should not get it for free because that holds Gnome itself back.
> > 
> > Once, I asked my (ex-Be engineer) husband "why BeOS always felt so fast?"
> > and his reply was: "because the kernel guy had his desk next to the
> > app_server guy." This explains it all, he didn't have to get into
> technical
> > details.
oh, organizational behavior!

> > 1. Configure the environment. (just an old mockup:
> > http://www.osnews.com/img/3721/1.png)
> > 2. Launch applications. (work in progress:
> > http://www.osnews.com/img/3721/2.png and
> > http://www.osnews.com/img/3721/3.png)
> > 3. Load and process files. (files should have the same window launcher as
> > the apps above, but with options regarding files instead of apps,
> depending
> > on the MIME type)

These are absolutely great.



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