Re: spatial mode, world map

[Daniel Borgmann <spark-mailinglists web de>]

On Tue, 2005-04-26 at 16:29 +0200, Magnus Damm wrote:
> Also, I think it would be good if the system was efficient to use for
> people that only knows about folders and have no idea about things
> like an absolute path or slash-chars and how they work. So I would
> like to be able to jump to a target without typing in a path.

Sure, it was just an example how spatial folder objects in conjunction
with another method to navigate to a target can be very efficient. Also
people who are not geeks usually shouldn't have a reason to access any
system or hidden folder under normal circumstances. :) And I believe a
tree view would already solve the "deep hierarchy" problem for those
users.

> Yeah, that would be pretty much the same as the world map. But I'm
> really against the fold/unfold thing. I think a file browser with and
> without a tree view is useful for some things (I like mc/vc/nc), but I
> dislike what happens when a large tree of folders are folded or
> unfolded and all folders below the fold-operation are moved. It's
> totaly non-spatial (the way I see it anyway) because the posistion is
> not fixed. And I thought one of the benefits of the spatial mode was
> that it was easy to remember the position. 

If folders remember the state of their tree, then it would still be
totally spatial, although that might not even be necessary. Objects
moving around as a result of user interaction often cannot be
avoided. :) They should just not be re-arranged randomly. Also keep in
mind that the file manager in OS9 had this tree-based listview and
that's pretty much the grand-daddy of spatial file managers.

> > What intrigues me so much about the whole spatial concept is to a large
> > extend, that it makes cooperation between different desktop objects not
> > just possible, but also natural and efficient.
> 
> I agree. But I think some pieces of the spatial puzzle are still
> missing to make it as efficient as it could be.

I see it more as a LEGO construction kit than a puzzle. ;) The
possibilities for extension are infinite and the components can all
compliment each other.
-- 
Daniel Borgmann <daniel borgmann gmail com>