Re: volumes mark 2

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Paolo Borelli">

> Don't get me wrong, I'm completely fine if thigs stay the way they are
> now ;)

Me too. ;-)

> What it is being discussed is a way to get rid of the Home-Desktop 
> loop: so in this context the Home icon on the Desktop has to go, and on
> the desktop you have icons of "Documents", "Images" etc. 
> I was just saying that _if_ we do this I would really prefer those dirs
> to physically be in home (~/Documents, ~/Images, etc) instead of buried
> in ~/Desktop/Documents etc...

See, I think it's mostly an academic non-problem.

OS X has the good old hard disk icon on the desktop, which is a totally
useless 'user root'. It's not even the conceptual root - there's another
'Computer' folder that has the hard disk and 'Network' in it. So, I don't
think they've got a very good solid conceptual root story going on there at
all.

You have a /Users/jdub/ home directory and a ~/Desktop directory. There's no
Home icon on the desktop, nor links to ~/Documents, etc. When it comes to
browsing your stuff from the desktop itself, it's pretty annoying, unless
you make your own Home icon (otherwise you have to click through the folders
on the disk into your home directory). Or you just hit Shift-Apple-H in the
Finder.

The thing is, you basically NEVER USE THE HOME DIRECTORY. I'm serious.
Transient stuff happens on the desktop. When you download files, for
instance. It's a holding place for stuff you're doing now, or stuff you do
all the time. When you're using Real Software to do anything useful, they
default to sensible locations, such as Documents or Movies, or remember
where you were last, and they provide you with a nice list of Favourites.

The only times I've browsed to the Home directory in the Finder is when I've
been doing something odd (ie. technical) or just felt like looking around,
which isn't something we necessarily have to optimise for (though I think it
would be appropriate to have a Home icon on the desktop, regardless of any
academic fears of "looping").

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia         http://lca2004.linux.org.au/
 
    "I can't imagine anyone telling Emma Bunton to shut up. It would be
                        rather like slapping Bambi."