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

[Roberto Rosselli Del Turco <rosselli ling unipi it>]

Shahms E. King wrote:
> I tend to agree about the "in-window per-file views being confusing and
> silly" (unless we want the entire desktop experience to be through
> nautilus, which I doubt), but rather than the full-fledged NautilusView
> I see no reason the sidebar couldn't house a BonoboControl as a preview
> of the currently selected file or something.  That would make even more
> sense as it could then be very easily integrated as the "preview widget"
> in the file selector.

That wouldn't solve the basic problem with inline viewing, i.e. that you 
can only browse one file at a time. It could be useful as a preview 
means, though, but this is already done in icons.

Back to square one: what might Nautilus users want to do with their 
files? I see three levels:

1. file managing operations (copy, move, etc.): the user doesn't need a 
preview, or the thumbnail(s) are more than enough;

2. file browsing: the user wants to browse the content of one or more 
specific files, but he doesn't want to edit it/them (yet);

3. file editing: the user wants to modify one specific file.

How should Nautilus cater for these needs?

1. the UI is complete, intuitive and even redundant (drag'n'drop, middle 
mouse drag'n'drop, keyboard shortcuts);

2. when the user double clicks (or single clicks, if the single click 
mode is preferred) on a file, Nautilus should open it in the 
NautilusViewer: it could be one single app, or more specific tools, it 
doesn't matter for the user as long as the UI is consistent and 
appropriate for the task;

3. the user can get to editing the file both from 1. and from 2.: wrt to 
1., a context menu seems a good choice; if the user has already opened 
the file with the Nautilus Viewer, though, a menu item, possibly with 
multiple choices (Edit with...), should do the job; this is how it works 
in GQView (I open images with GQView and if I want to edit them I resort 
to its Edit/in xxxx menu).

At the end of this mail, I realize that Mark's idea of two separate 
functions, View (with...) and Open (with...) has its merits, because 
they would fit with 2. and 3. ... :)

Ciao

--
Roberto Rosselli Del Turco      e-mail:	rosselli at cisi.unito.it
Dipartimento di Scienze			rosselli at ling.unipi.it
del Linguaggio			Then spoke the thunder	DA
Universita' di Torino		Datta: what have we given?  (TSE)

  Hige sceal the heardra,     heorte the cenre,
  mod sceal the mare,       the ure maegen litlath.  (Maldon 312-3)