My humble opinions about Nautilus interface

[Fabio Gomes <fabio gs2 com br>]

Hello, folks.

I'm using Nautilus 2.0.6 (which comes with Red Hat 8.0)  and I would 
like to share with you some opinions about Nautilus interface (and GNOME 
in general).

Please note that I'm not a member of nautilus-list, so I will follow the 
discussion from the web archive. Also, I'm not a native English speaker, 
so my words may be confusing at some points.

Well, let's work. I think that:

1. The Side Pane on/off state should be saved as well as its current 
component being used (such as Tree or History);

2. Everything that Nautilus can access (filesystem, configuration, 
cameras, rpms, fonts, network, etc.) should be able to be accessed in an 
usable way from the Tree;

3. The Tree selection should follow the user as he/she navigates through 
folders, machines, etc.;

4. Right-clicking on a Tree item should bring up the same pop-up menu as 
when clicking on the Icon View;

5. More Tree: when a folder does not have any subfolder, its arrow 
should not be visible. This means that Nautilus should scan for 
subfolders each folder which is expanded in the tree. (In 2.0.6, it 
always shows the arrow and, when there are no subfolders, an "(Empty)" 
subitem is shown);

6. Even more Tree: Tree items should behave exactly like Icon View 
items, so emblems, custom icons and context menus would work the same 
way. I think this envolves (a lot of) code sharing between the icon view 
and the Tree.

I think a Tree is very important in a graphical file manager. Without a 
tree, Drag and Drop is almost useless, specially when dealing with small 
screens (1024x768 or 800x600).

As a GNOME lover, I've been following the project since the beginning. I 
see that GNOME has a GREAT usability culture and I simply love the 
improvements made to Gnome 2.

But i'ts a pity that the Nautilus Tree was almost abandoned (as we can 
see) in favor of Usability. I've read in some mailing list that "a tree 
confuses users". I noticed that sometimes we think too much about 
Usability and forget to think about PRODUCTIVITY, which is a very 
important subject. A tree is non-usable but is DEAD productive. At the 
same time, an icon-only interface with  navigation buttons is usable but 
is non-productive.

I think the user should be able to choose between productivity or 
usability. Yes. The Tree should be invisible by default. :)

Thank you guys for developing Nautilus. I love it more at each new release.

Fabio Gomes de Souza
fabio gs2 com br

NAUTILUS TREE! NAUTILUS TREE! NAUTILUS TREE! NAUTILUS TREE! :D