Re: [Nautilus-list] Some comments on the "Nautilus 1.0 Feature List"

["Arlo Rose" <arlo eazel com>]

> Found some items on the feature list I want to comment. Perhaps
> some items are of interest. I have *not* tried to run Nautilus, my
> comments are mostly just ideas from other projects.
> 
> English is *NOT* my native language.. ;)

Thanks for your comments!  Many of these items have been addressed in the
latest version of this document (which has not yet been out up on the web.)

I'll individually address your items here.

 
> ---- FILE ----
> 
> New Window - Creates a new Nautilus window when on "Icon view"
> Not to sure about this "Icon view". Any better description? Okey,
> I sort of know, but what is the alternative?

This was a mistake by one of the previous authors.  The actual result is to
give you a new window whose location is a duplicate of your current view, be
it an icon view, or a web page.

 
> New File - Creates a new file in the viewed location
> It could be nice to be able to create an empty file and open
> it in a viewer/editor. As a minimum it should be possible to touch
> a file and then open with default actions on the suffix.

A feature like this is planned.  It lurks in our bug/feature database, and
is described as letting the use create a new document in the same way you
can in GMC on the desktop.


> Open - Blah, blah, blah..
> What if the user tries to open a txt-file and a jpg-file?

It would open a Text editor and an Image editor. :-)


> Show Properties - Blah, blah..
> It could be nice to have a "Multiple Properties window", instead of
> a dialog box for each file and/or folder.

This is under consideration.  Based on user feedback, this seems to be the
most popular way of doing this.  Personally, I don't see how users are
supposed to easily compare files to one another when you can only have one
property window open.


> Trash, is it possible to keep the original path somehow? Something like
> you delete a file, then it is moved to trash and some kind of shadow file
> is left in the folder and marks the file as deleted. This shadow file should
> be hidden if a new file is stored in the folder with the same name. If the
> trashed file is deleted then the shadow file goes away. This makes it
> easy to restore a spesific file from the trash folder even if this contains
>> 1K files.

This too is a feature planned for a post 1.0 version of Nautilus.  It will
be part of our extended undo architecture.


> Empty Trash -
> Duplicate entry? "Delete from Trash". Also in "Delete from Trash" is
> a comment about "Only in menu when the selected items are in the Trash".
> A menu should never change.

A menu can change contextually so long as is does similar actions.

In this case, when you select a file outside the trash, you have the option
to move it to the trash, and when that item is already in the trash, the
option allows you to permanently remove it from the trash.


> Duplicate -
> Bad shortcut (My preference..)

CNTL - (D)uplicate is a bad shortcut?  What would you suggest that would
make it better?  D for Duplicate makes pretty good sense to me. ;-)


> Find - 
> Some ideas... 
> Basically, what do you do when you don't know what you are looking for?

Wait 'till you *do* know what you're looking for? :-)

You lost me on this one. :-)


> And how do you present posiibly >1K of hits in a way the user grasp
> easilly..

As a list view.


> ---- EDIT ----
> 
> Undo -
> This should be multilevel. And it should be possible to "Undo something
> previous done", that is not the last ation.

Perhaps post 1.0 we will add this feature.


> Cut and Paste -
> This is really another application (?) but it would be nice to have some
> kind of list of items from previous actions.

I'm not sure what you're talking about... Explain?


> Backgrounds, etc -
> Isn't this really themes? Should this be handled in the application or at
> some
> higher level? It *should* be possible to give an application some spesific
> appearence as this makes Gnome more attractive for vendors. Still I don't
> like the idea of "web-like" applications. Hmm.. This is another discussion.

Themes are separate from backgrounds. Backgrounds allow you to customize
individual folders or your desktop with a distinct pattern (or color),
whereas a theme is an overall unified appearance.


> Emblems -
> This is not visual properties of the application, they are system spesific.
> I belive so..

These are loosely thought of as visual properties of the icon.  This dialog
will become more feature rich with drag and droppable items post-1.0.


> ---- VIEW ----
> 
> In the View menu there is an inconsistency. It is possible to make virtual
> directories/folders of files with some properties/emblems. How is it
> possible
> swap betveen such folders? Tabs in the left pane? It should be in the View
> menu too.

You might want to try Nautilus out.  I think if you used it, this menu would
become more clear to you. (You did mention you hadn't used it for people who
think I'm being rude, and have forgotten your opening sentence :-)


> ---- GO ----
> 
> History in various forms
> It would be nice to have a flat history but also history connected to
> different
> views. Perhaps it is possible to "learn" Nautilus that some types of files
> can
> be grouped that way..

That is how it works (as far as I know.)

You have a global history in the menu bar, and a history side-bar panel
that's contextual to your current view.


> ----BOOKMARKS ----
> 
> ----HELP ----
> 
> Help Browser -
> Eiter Nautilus have a built in browser capability or it should use an
> external
> browser, possibly an external help system. An integrated consistent help
> system would be great!

Dan Mueth can comment on this one.

 
> ---- SKI SIGNS ----

User Level Menu


> Search - Complexity Options
> All kind of options should be choosen according to what the user tries to do.
> If he searces for some kind of file (looks like a filename) the all
> appropriate options should be set. If it looks like a text string other
> options should be set. Ie, if there is chars that's not legal or very unusual
> in the search string then it is a free text search (for example).

Our searching is pretty robust.  You might want to ask Rebecca Schulman
about these features.


> ---- TOOLBAR ----
> 
> Simple Find vs Search Subject -
> I don't think there should be any difference betveen those two.

This isn't in my version of the Feature List... Perhaps it was a mistake in
an earlier version that's been corrected.


> Likewise I belive the difference betveen File Find and Web Find is
> artificial.

One is a local file, the other is is a web page out on the net. :-)

 
> ---- SIDEBAR ----
> 
> Emblems Tab -
> Sort of flat directory structure based upon user created and system generated
> emblems. User created ones are "Draft" and "Urgent". System generated ones are
> "Application" and "Picture".

I think this is another case where if you used Nautilus you would see that
something like this isn't necessary.


Hope this clears some things up!


Cheers,
Arlo Rose