Nautilus Preference Proposal -- another point of view

[Luca Ferretti <elle uca genie it>]

====================================================================== 
Intro 

Very interesting and exciting thread last week, but just a little
trouble: we use the same old entries and label, just change place :-) 

Nautilus is a big piece of software, probably initially developed too
much as a stand alone application, but a really big piece of software
(BTW: evolution too ;-). 

Actually GNOME use it to 
        * file management
        * desktop handling (icons, background?)
        * trash handling
        * documents icons handling
So we have all options in the same dialog, well, in a strange, very
strange order too ;-) 

In my opinion we need a different prefs placing and different
label...and voila': a good, cool, useful dialog is made 


====================================================================== 

Design Guidelines 

        * move out
          advanced/not-so-used/not-related-to-file-manager         
          options from File Manager Preferences (Edit->Preferences)
        * have only 4 (or 5, better 4) 'panes' and no many options per
          pane
        * place most used or useful options in first tabs, 'advanced' in
          last, 'guru' in gconf(-editor)
        * don't place some advanced options near simple ones
        * actually options are not well 'visual' placed (i have to read
          all 'path' to 'find myself', where path is categories->frame
          heading->option)
        * have a cool preferences dialog (no notebook, please!)

========================================================================== 
Moving out 

1) document icons 

2) desktop draw 

3) trash behavior 

'Cause aren't file management related. When user select
Edit->Preferences from nautilus window, used must change _only_ file
management related options, and, following HIG, preferences for the
whole application (note: nautilus can customize appearance of single
items view, but in pref you can customize default and common options).
Yeah, we need nautilus to draw desktop, but we don't need desktop
preferences in nautilus dialog. We can place in
gnome-control-center/advanced. 
A simple working dialog|capplet can be downloaded from
http://www.infinito.it/utenti/elle.uca/GNOME/desktop-trash.tar.bz2 : all
code came from magicdev hacking, but it just work (branch gnome-2-0) and
you can manage desktop & trash options without open a nautilus's
windows, as it should be... well there's a stupid bug, find it, and,
yes, probably we can break this dialog in desktop only and trash only
dialogs, and we can add a "Maximum trash dimension" (!!!), and many
other, but out from nautilus's Edit->Preferences. 

Better: make trash a real GNOME desktop entities. Actually users can set
"move in trash, don't erase", use gthumb and _permanently_ remove
images. 


============================================================================= 
SURVIVORS 

AKA The dialog formerly know as "File Manager Preferences" 

You can find an only-interface-working at
www.infinito.it/utenti/elle.uca/GNOME/nautilus-preferences-0.0.2.tar.gz 

'Cause nautilus is a file manager, when users select "Edit->preferences"
probably they want (in logical order): 
        1. select default view <-> how nautilus draws managed items
        2. change windows appearance <-> how nautilus draws itself
        3. 4. an so on: little more advanced options
So I think we can use 4 categories (in same logical order): General
(=1), Interface (=2), Item Views ('view as icons' and 'view as list'
options, but name's not so beautiful, sorry), Details (old Speed
Tradeoff) 

Total: 4 panes (...well pane 3 is 1+1...:-) with better, or cleaner
captions/descriptions then old dialog. 

Short description, you can see it in action downloading tar.gz (not
tested to 'make install'). BTW somethings can be removed!! 

----General 
Here users can modify default items view and common (no advanced)
options to icons and list views. 6 options, if we add here Tree Pane's
"show only folders", but sidebar's panes options can use a different
dialog, so prob we can move it out. 

----Interface 
I disagree the galeon style *bar visibility setting. From HIG: "The View
menu contains only items that affect the user's view of the _current
document_." 
I expect if I want disable statusbar from all windows I've to go in
preferences. 
BTW in View menu we have zoom, view as and item placing options too:
they work __only__ on the folder you are viewing and not for all
folders. 
So, in this pane, you can select Behavior (new windows, single/double
click) and *bar visibility. Additionally you can set default nautilus
theme, but I'm not sure about it. I think is better remove it and make
an "Edit->Decorations" dialog (to pick up throbber, zoom controls, all
windows background... but I'll send another mail about it) 

----Item Views 
Packing together Icons and List view options. Here notebook rules,
'cause you can add a new view options ("view as Categories" a la XP can
be cooool) without redesign all or add icons in sidebar
(4-icons-in-sidebar dialog has better visual appearance). 
'cause old 'Icon Captions" category affect _only_ Icon view, it's placed
in Icon View preferences. New labels should be more useful then old to
recognize how exactly zoom works. 
'Show Columns' in list view pref: ok, just to fill empty space, but it
can be useful :)) 
'Alt' versions come from MacOS finder suggestion, but sliders need more
workaround. 

UPDATE: prob "use compact layout" and "Use manual layout" need a better
self descriptive labels, but my ideas about it are italian-language
related, I'm not sure are better then original in english. 

----Details 
Different layout, same old functionality. New labels, more
self-descriptive. Old Never-Only local-Always style isn't too much
clean: you have to 'work with eyes' to find actual configuration and to
modify it. 


Orphans: 
        * 'executable text files": I'm not sure that "Always run/view
          scripts" are useful. "Ask each" is the better (you can select
          run/run in terminal!!!) default option. If you want to change
          it, probably you are a very advanced user, or you need to
          run/view always scripts, so launch gconf-editor :-)
        * theming capabilities: I'll send a different post on it, but
          take a look at preferences.glade 
        * special flags: same than previous proposal
=========================================================================== 

OK, flame on (I hope;-)!!!! 


PS: sorry. I'm a very very very bad GTK developer. I can't make all of
it....:-((((( 
So, I'm just a cool designer :-) 

PPS can someone post it on usability list? 

-- 
[...]'ansai com'era casa mia
e quel bambino che, giocava in un porcile

io, guarda il pongo che c'ho io
va' cor pongo mo' che te ce faccio
soldi in tasca non ce n'ho
ma sul pongo comando io

                (The gnometto band)