Re: Nautilus 2.6 - We're going all spatial

[David Emory Watson <dwatson cs ucr edu>]

You rock Dave (and I don't mean your musical preferences).

One idea for a possible embelishment: by default the oo metaphor is used
everywhere.  To switch between metaphors a thumbtack like widget is
provided on the toolbar.  When "pressed" the location bar appears, new
folders open in the same window, etc.

Actually, this is might be a crap idea.  Multimode navigation could be
confusing if not done carefully...

 - David

On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 10:28, Dave Camp wrote:
> During the nautilus 2.4 cycle there was some discussion on
> nautilus-list about the "Object Oriented" metaphor vs. the "Navigation
> Metaphor".  That thread started at
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2002-September/msg00093.html
> (read that mail if you need an introduction to the OO and Navigation
> metaphors).
> 
> Our general opinion coming out of that thread was that the Object
> Oriented metaphor was probably easier to learn, and built a stronger
> conceptual model for users, but that the convenience benefits of a
> navigation window outweighed those.
> 
> For the 2.6 cycle, the nautilus crew is trying out a new UI that
> should give us the best of both worlds.  The idea is present an object
> oriented UI from the desktop, but to allow users to open navigation
> windows if they prefer them.  This means that opening a folder from
> the desktop will give you an object window.  Opening folders from
> object windows will give you new object windows.  You can right click
> on a folder from an object window and select "Navigate Folder"[1], and
> get a normal nautilus window.
> 
> I want to emphasize that we are not removing the navigation window.
> People who use this window and like it can continue to.  This is also
> not a first step toward removing the navigation window.  The
> navigation window is a central part of nautilus, and will not be
> removed.  We think that splitting the object-oriented bits of nautilus
> into their own world will let us make the navigator act more like you
> expect it to.
> 
> This interface is partially inspired by the interface described in
> http://arstechnica.com/paedia/f/finder/finder-1.html .  Interested
> parties should read that before getting involved in the discussion.
> 
> For this UI to succeed, we need to iron out all of the details.  We'd
> like people to pound on the object ui and take notes on the things
> that bother them.  After you've done this for awhile, we'd like to see
> your comments on nautilus-list gnome org   You can get it from the
> nautilus-spatial-playground branch of nautilus.
> 
> I'll be following this mail up with a more detailed list of the work
> that's been done and needs to be done.
> 
> Thanks,
> - The nautilus crew 
> 
> [1] In the branch right now, this is Open With -> Navigation Window,
> but that will be changed.