Questions about the spatial interface proposal

[Dave Malcolm <david davemalcolm demon co uk>]

Some thoughts and questions the spatial interface proposal are below:

(i) What is customisable?
Does it cover:
- positions of files in the icon view
- size of files
- emblems
- sticky notes in a folder, with a _spatial_ position (please!)
- anything else?

(ii) Is it different for different users?  
What I mean is that if several users are working on a folder on a server
somewhere (whether SMB or NFS), can they each rearrange the positions of
the files in that folder into differing positions, or do they see each
other position changes?  I suspect it's the former.

(iii) Is it different on different machines?
If you access the same folder on a server from different machines whilst
logged in as the same user, do you see the same arrangement of files?

(iv) Can removable media store the positions of the files in their
folders?
This is so that if you insert different Zip disks (or whatever) that
contain files with duplicate names, each has its own layout of files
that be individually tailored. 

(v) When is the position data stored?
This needs to be documented so that people can make up meaningful
backups.  Is it all stored in  ~/.nautilus/metafiles ?

(vi) Is "zooming" an appropriate metaphor?
"Zoom" suggests a view of something.  If the window "is" the directory,
then surely the terminology should suggest making the icons bigger and
smaller, rather than zooming in and out of them.

David Malcolm