Re: Nautilus 2.6 - We're going all spatial

["Eugenia Loli-Queru" <eloli hotmail com>]

>Even better, Windows and Mac used to have an OO model, and both switched
>to a navigation model.  Did they do that just for fun or was it a
>horrible mistake?  (And if so, why aren't they fixing it?)

Fully agreed with Ettore there.

History lesson:
While most of you wouldn't like to hear of BeOS again, it is true that we
can learn from history. BeOS had this OO design for its Tracker file manager
windows (no navigational buttons, each folder is a new window etc) for
years, and users were --literally-- shouting to Be engineers regarding
Tracker's inability to open folders on the same window. People just didn't
like it, and every time there was a news item about Tracker on BeNews.com
back then, people will just troll and troll over that specific feature on
our forums, among other Tracker weirdnesses they didn't like (despite all
this, Tracker had other features that they were innovative and unique).
It was only after the open source version of Tracker came out, OpenTracker,
that people came to terms with Tracker. The *first thing* they changed/added
on OT was the ability to open on the same window, plus to add a brand new
toolbar with navigation buttons!! Yes, the guy who wrote Tracker (which is
btw the same person who worked on Eazel's Nautilus and currently working on
Finder at Apple!) was not happy about these changes people were doing in
his... masterpiece. But the reality was, OT became much more usable after it
got open sourced (yes, and more buggy too :) just because the users added
what they really craving for, for years: the navigational model.
Seth spoke about new users and experienced users, and I can tell you that
while BeOS was an alternative OS, it mostly had non-developers and
non-uber-power-users using it, and even them were asking for the
navigational model, it was the No1 request back in the day, I remember.

Anyways, I wanted to chime in about this because I already being through
this issue in the BeOS community since 1999. :D

While I like ideas to come in and out on this list (this is what is for :),
it will be nice to see people to not be so stuck on MacOS 7/8/9 ideas in
general. I already dislike that empty, space-eater horizontal macos-like bar
on the default Gnome... ;-D

If I may suggest for an alternative way to represent the path on a file
manager, which gives instant access to all the previous directories already
browsed on, check out this screenshot:
http://www.cocoatech.com/screenshots/albums/pathfinder/packageinfo.sized.jpg
Please ignore the whole window you see there, and only put attention in the
"OSX/Applications/Acrobat Reader 5.1/Contents" menu bar just arfter the icon
toolbar. These are buttons that are auto-putting themselves there after you
navigate to a folder inside a folder. In other words, you have the followed
path represented as flat buttons instead of the traditional tree and it
makes the "go back" and "go forward" truly a SNAP.
More shots of Path Finder: http://www.cocoatech.com/screenshots/pathfinder
If you do have Mac OS X available, please download and give this file
manager a shot. I suggest we study more apps like that for new ideas instead
of re-implementing the irrelevant MacOS 8. So far, the OO model just doesn't
make me so enthusiastic... I honestly need more info of how it can improve
my productivity.

Regards,
Eugenia