Re: #96239 Implementing a "Column view"

[Gene Ragan <diskzero mac com>]

 On Tuesday, November 21, 2006, at 07:14AM, "Fabrice Tiercelin" <fabrice tiercelin gmail com> wrote:
>Hello everybody !
>
>I want to contribute to Nautilus project. I'm about to implement Mac
>OS X Finder's "column view". There is already a bug for this (#96239).
>However, before starting this work, I wanna know what do you think
>about "Column view". Do you think implementing it would be a good idea
>? If not, why ?
>
>For the ones who don't know what is the "column view" (which is
>usually the case with Linux users :) , With the column view, the file
>manager show all the files of the current directory in a column. In a
>column on the left, it shows the parent directory, and on the left
>again, the parent parent directory... until the root directory. Parent
>directories are often hidden on the left and a scrollbar let you see
>them. When you select a sub-directory, its content appear in a column
>on the right. If you select a file in a parent directory, then the
>current directory column disappear. So you easily navigate in the file
>system.
>I have found a demostration of "column view" with Finder :
>http://www.glnd.k12.va.us/resources/OSX_Jag_Movies/column_view.mov
>
>Give me your opinion. Thanx for reading :)
>-- 
>nautilus-list mailing list
>nautilus-list gnome org
>http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/nautilus-list
>
>

Fabrice,

I think adding a column view to Nautilus could be  a good idea.  It is something that I was considering working on myself now that I have the ability to do so.

Before I make some comments, let me give you a little background on myself.  I was part of the early Eazel team that created the first version of Nautilus.  I worked on it for two years before Eazel went away.  I was no longer able to contribute to Nautilus as I, and many members of the Nautilus team, were hired at Apple.  I specifically worked on Finder for almost six years.  As you can guess, I have a good idea about how column view works.

The first thing I would mention, is that column view is non-trivial and has many, many subtle behaviors.  Some of these behaviors are still far from perfect and some are down right annoying.  Column view does not mesh well with the concept of spatial browsing.  Finder users often find themselves in mental conflict with which view  settings should be applicable when spawning windows out of column view.

It is vital that you have a complete specification for how a column view would work.  If you just want to model it after Apple's, you probably won't find all the edge cases and specialized behaviors that are coded into Apple's version.  You should really have a strong model of how you want it to work and specify it out to the last detail.  If you just start hacking it out, you will probably hit a lot of the pitfalls that Finder ran into along the way.

I am excited to be able to start hacking on Nautilus again.  I have to catch up on all the cool work that has been done to make Nautilus what it is today.  If you want any of my insights into column view, or any other file manager related issue, I would be glad to help.

Thanks!

Gene