Re: [Nautilus-list] Curious about design decisions.

[Darin Adler <darin bentspoon com>]

On 2/3/02 11:10 PM, "Gregory Merchan" <merchan baton phys lsu edu> wrote:

> I've either heard on-line or read in the list archives that the
> original design of Nautilus was explicitly single-window. As I
> understand this is the reason for a few things: the large default
> size, the oft repeated recommendation to drag from the main view
> to the tree side panel to transfer files, and the (apparently
> rejected) opening of all folders in that single window.

I'm not sure I follow your question completely. But I'll try to answer.

Nautilus has two modes. The "open new directories in the same window" mode
is more like a web browser. The "open each directory in a new window" mode
is more like the Macintosh Finder. There's a preference to choose between
the two modes.

I don't think that there is a direct connection between the Nautilus default
window size and the "open in same window" mode. As I recall, the final
default window size was chosen so it's large enough to view some important
web pages. Note that in "open each directory in a new window" mode, each
window's size and position is saved separately.

The recommendation to drag from the main view to the tree side panel came
from user testing, where users weren't able to discover the other technique.
I do think that this is a result of the "open new directories in the same
window" mode. Also, gmc users claimed this was the "normal" way to do
things. But the "copy by dragging between windows" works fine. And since
1.0, we added a "copy files by copy and paste" feature copied from Windows.

I don't know what you mean by "the (apparently rejected) opening of all
folders in that single window".

    -- Darin