Re: Killing views [Was: Dealing with files in Gnome]

[Jens Finke <jens triq net>]

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> 
> > So are you saying that we should eliminate the simple text and image
> > viewer in nautilus? If so, which applications do you want to replace them
> > with?
> 
> I strongly agree that in-window per-file views [1] are confusing and largely
> silly.

I strongly disagree. Why are these file views silly? Actually, if I double
click for example on an image I expect to see it. IMO the nautilus views
are the easiest way for this task. The user isn't confrontated with
another user interface, just continues to use the interface he is used to
(nautilus).

> An good alternative is to build the preview application, discussed
> previously in regards to gpdf/ggv/eog, and use it for all Nautilus per-file
> view use. The Abiword preview component could sit nicely it, etc. This app
> could also provide a plug-in to the next-gen file selector to show previews
> for every file type it knows about.

What is the exact benfit of it? I hardly see a difference to our current
approach. Beside the fact, that this general viewer doesn't exist yet in
contrast to the generic NautilusViews.

> Then you're using an app that can sanely handle menu/toolbar merging (if it
> has to, this stuff is pretty crazy confusicating crack too, IMHO), and has a
> user interface designed for single or multipage, zoomable previewing.
> 
> There's no reason it couldn't handle a text preview, etc.

Maybe our existing views just have some bugs with regards to menu/toolbar
merging. We should adress these issues to get a nice user experience. If
we don't fix the problems, another generic shell wouldn't help either I
think. 

Regards,

   Jens