Re: Proposal for bug 73937 / symlinks in nautilus

[Dave Camp <dave ximian com>]

I think the answer depends on whether we think symlinks are usually used
as filesystem fixups or "bookmarks".  I'd want the new behavior for the
former and the old for the latter.

I agree that usually they're used as filesystem fixups, and the average
user doesn't usually need to do that.  But the way nautilus exposes
symlinks in the ui makes them more likely to be used by the users as
bookmarks.  I usually use "Link Here" from the context menu to create
bookmarks, not to fix up the filesystem.

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that nautilus is used for browsing
a user's personal stuff more often than it is used for browsing the
system files.  I'd also guess that for the average nautilus user
bookmarks are more common than fixups in the personal space,
particularly for inexperienced users. 

I'm not particularly attached to either solution.  I'd say that we don't
have a clear enough case to change the behavior people are used to, so I
think I'd go for reverting the change.

Does that make sense?

-dave

On Fri, 2003-01-17 at 04:36, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> On 17 Jan 2003, Ettore Perazzoli wrote:
> 
> > > This means that the user almost always (especially novice users) believe 
> > > that the symlink path is *the* location, and are not suprised when "up" in 
> > > /tmp goes to / instead of /mnt/hdb2. Instead I think they would be 
> > > confused if following "tmp" in / would go to /mnt/hdb2/tmp as this would 
> > > unnecessary expose them to the concept of symlinks which they would be 
> > > forced to learn.
> > 
> > I am not convinced at all of this; but anyways, without testing evidence
> > it's just my opinion vs. yours.  :-)
> 
> Dave, what is your opinion about this?
> 
> -- 
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>  Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
>                    alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
> He's a shy drug-addicted shaman who dotes on his loving old ma. She's an 
> artistic streetsmart mechanic with the power to see death. They fight crime! 
-- 
Dave Camp <dave ximian com>
Ximian, Inc.