Re: Nautilus toolbar simplification

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

Michael Toomim wrote:
> I think the nautilus toolbar(s) could stand to be simplified quite a 
> bit.  Right now, nautilus has two toolbars (one is named the "location 
> bar"), because everything wouldn't fit on a single toolbar.
>
> But it seems like most of the buttons are unneeded:

[...]

> Anyway, it seems like all this UI stuff was designed back when nautilus 
> was a web browser, and then none of it was ever taken out.  Simplifying 
> these features would make Nautilus a way-better file manager, IMHO.

Nautilus is based on the navigation model, which is all too logical when
you think that it can browse remote dirs and perhaps one day will gain
full web browsing capabilities (see other thread). So all the buttons
you quote a) are actually needed to perform operations related to this
model, and b) are a direct, reassuring pointer to what the browser/file
manager can do.

BTW, "Back" is *not* the same as "Up" when you follow symbolic links,
which would be in itself a good reason to keep both.

That said, the location should probably be hidden by default, because:

* Nautilus is not at the present moment a full fledged web browser,
imagine if a user tried surfing the web by typing addresses in it;

* preferences:// -like URIs can be confusing for inexperienced users.

But this has been discussed already, I think. I do now realize, though,
that if you hide the location bar you don't have the slightest clue
about where you are in the filesystem: how about printing it in the
window title bar?

Ciao

--
Roberto Rosselli Del Turco      e-mail:	rosselli cisi unito it
Dipartimento di Scienze			rosselli 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)