spatial mode, world map

[Magnus Damm <magnus damm gmail com>]

Hello all,

I'm not by far any GUI expert, but I find the Gnome desktop a nice and
I believe that a useful graphical environment is a key component for
getting my grandma feel at home on a machine running free software.

I have been reading some spatial-related email on this list with half
an eye, and to me most of the ideas have been a workaround for the
fact that browsing deep directory structures generates many new
windows and fills up your screen too fast.

To me the most logical solution for that specific problem would be to
have some kind of zoomable "world map" showing all reachable folders
in a gigantic tree structure. This is to provide the user with a way
to find their way to a specific folder quickly by just looking at the
world map and clicking the folder - bypassing a long path of spatial
clicking.

It should be easy to zoom in and out and pan around on the map.
Clicking a folder on the map should result in an opened spatial
nautilus window. Perhaps the zoom level of the map could be controlled
with the scroll wheel. And yes of course - the map should be
autogenerated and kept in sync with the reality using gamin or
something like that.

I also think the size of the folder icons on the map should depend on
the number of folders within a folder, ie a folder containing 1000
folders would contain smaller subfolders and require a greater zoom in
than a folder containing 5 folders.

I'm not sure if this is something that should be part of nautilus, but
I thought I'd throw the idea out in space and see if I get any
reaction. =)

/ magnus