Re: [Nautilus-list] Re: Installation-time performerance preference

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 23Aug2001 01:13AM (-0400), Havoc Pennington wrote:
> 
> 
> Random other thing Joel argues is that the Netscape/Nautilus/etc. way
> of setting up the options dialog is not so good, he suggests a
> notebook instead:
> 
>  http://joel.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$71
> 
> But then in the printed copy of his book (this point is not in the
> above-linked online edition), he says that we'd have to redesign the
> notebook widget in order to nicely support as many tabs as Nautilus
> has in its list-on-the-side. He suggests how to do this in the book.
> 

Yeah, the classic problem with notebooks is that when there are too
many tabs, the whole thing sucks. I think a list is a better choice
than a conventional notebook widget when there are many
categories. See the UI hall of shame for what happens when you have
too many tabs (multiple rows of tabs and tabs that scroll off the side
are an utter disaster; even without either of these long rows of tabs
are bad because it's easier to scan a long list vertically than
horizontally ).

I also think the list with just text is more clear than big icons with
text below, so some of the criticisms of the old mac control panel
don't apply. For one thing, the Nautilus option list does not need to
scroll. It's also easier to navigate with the keyboard than most tab
interfaces.

I haven't seen Joel's proposed redesigned notebook so I don't have any
opinion on whether it would be better. Maybe you could tell us what's
different about it that makes it work well when there are many tabs.

Regards,

Maciej