Re: Mega patch to make spatial nautilus rock!

[Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc blueyonder co uk>]

On Thu, 2004-07-08 at 20:54, Seth Nickell wrote:
> > 1) optional bookmarks in spatial mode. 
> 
> I can't comment on the implementation, though the old Nautilus bookmarks
> seemed a little over engineered... but...
> 
> This should really be integrated with the Places menu (i.e. make the
> places menu extensible) AND shared with the new file dialog's list of
> "bookmarks".

I agree but we either have to rename bookmarks to places (or the other
way round) as it seems silly to have an "edit bookmarks" under "places".

I agree with the file dialog's integration.  


> > 2) bookmarks with shortcut keys (limited to first 10 entires- ctrl+1,
> > ctrl+2 etc).
> 
> This seems like a nice feature as long as we don't already use CTRL-#
> for something else? It seems plausible that Metacity would use this for
> something?
> 
> > 3) ability to set folder actions for left and middle mouse buttons
> > 4) an open in same window option for (3) above. 
> 
> These are basically options to make "spatial mode" work like "navigation
> mode". Why? Given that there's a preference to just switch over to
> navigation mode, why not do that and use a UI that's designed around
> that? I don't see an advantage to adding certain aspects of "navigation
> mode" to "spatial mode".

Its gives the option of having a combo/hybrid mode like Mac OS/X does.
With this we can have pure spatial, pure browser or something in
between. We currently cannot combine browser and spatial effectively -
if you right click and select open with browser then you've no way of
going back to a spatial window from there (its also quite horrible and
inconsistent that way too as the file browser feels like a different app
entirely).

> 
> > This setting can be thought of as spatial inheritance - it inherits the
> > properties of its parent though spatial coherence is still maintained
> > (so its not a browser clone!). 
> 
> Its a browser window. Spatial inheritance is so totally non-spatial.
> When have you seen something "inherit the physical properties of
> another" in the real world? ;-)

All classifications in the real world use inheritance (animal,
vegetable, mineral etc).

Anyhow its optional and intended for those wanting to combine both
worlds. Its not meant as a replacement for the default spatial mode
which is okay for newbies. But its still spatially coherent and it gives
the user far more control over either a pure spatial or pure browser
mode.

> 
> > Once a spatial window is re-used in this
> > way it no longer loads or saves properties therefore it wont screw up
> > any saved spatial settings.
> 
> It screws up the scroll position.... but that's a minor detail not my
> real objection :-)
> 
> > 5) an optional pathbar displayed instead of the location button
> > 
> > This is a really neat addition as it also solves the problem of
> > displaying the full path in a spatial window as well as providing a
> > slick way to navigate upwards. 
> 

> 1) It puts Unix path garbage onto every window. We are trying to
> minimize the impact of our poorly laid out filesystem throughout GNOME.
> The file dialog gets around this by using a UI trick to provide a
> plausible explanation for re-rooting of the path bar. However, I don't
> see a way Nautilus can use this trick. It means that every window will
> have, e.g. "[/] [home] [username]" of noise in it (or potentially even,
> say, "[/] [afs] [ir.stanford.edu] [s] [n] [snickell]" or "[/] [usr]
> [local] [home] [seth]" etc).

I can adapt it to do the same as file dialog.

> 
> 2) Spatial windows are often quite small. Pathbar (despite scrolling,
> which is all very well) does not work as well in these situations.
> 
Most wont have that problem and those that do can use the location
button.

> 3) Opening in new window upon clicking on path bar elements feels weird,
> particularly in contrast to the behavior in the file dialog.

That depends - its no different from the location button menu. If you
set left click mode to be open in new window then it is the same.

> 
> > I hope this mega patch gets added cause it would be really cool if Gnome
> > 2.8 has this. It will not only make file management a really enjoyable
> > process but it will end all the criticism that spatial mode has
> > attracted in the press as well as providing the most innovative and
> > advanced file manager out there! 
> 
> I don't see how having these settings is better than letting people use
> the navigation mode if that fits their folder setup / tasks better.

The point is that a hybrid model would fit all desktops better by
allowing you to drill down when you need to and open spatially for file
management purposes when you want to. Its slick and elegant and OS/X
does it this way.

Most peoples filesystems would benefit from having both being a mouse
click away and lets face it filesystems without hierarchies are a long
way off (though I do fully support and want Storage). 

I also dont like to use the file browser for this cause it lacks the
nice clean and lightweight interface we get with spatial (i dont want
toolbars and sidepanels here but I do if I explicitly run the file
browser from the menu - I note that even MS Windows has a minimalistic
browse view from its desktop and a separate heavyweight explorer with
treeview.). I also find spatial coherence to be a good feature and
overall its wonderfully minimalistic. 

jamie.

> 
> -Seth