#96239 Implementing a "Column view"

["Fabrice Tiercelin" <fabrice tiercelin gmail com>]

Thanx Gene Ragan, Matthew Paul Thomas and Mark Kegel for your anwsers
(I add Mark Kegel's mail to the mailing-list below). I'm happy to see
I'm not the only one who wants to implement column view for Nautilus.

At the moment, I have downloaded the code, compiled it, run it and I
have read some Nautilus documentations. I think I have lot to do
before starting coding. I'm really interesting about Gene's
documentation (specifications, issues...). How much this documentation
represents ? Is it possible to attach it to #96239 bug ? Then, I think
Mark's implementation would be helpful too. (there's a point I'm not
sure; your implementation has been done with Nautilus code, isn't it
?). Attaching it to #96239 bug isn't probably the best place. Can you
send me it by mail or give me a link ? I have just discovered
live.gnome.org. I will visit it to see how to handle such a project.

I will wait your anwsers. Thanx everybody.


2006/11/22, Mark Kegel <mark kegel gmail com>:
> Fabrice,
>
> Sorry to write you directly, but I've had problems posting to the
> nautilus list at times (technical glitches, not for other reasons).
> Anyway, I see that you are wanting to add column view to nautilus.
> Great!! I've already done a non-trivial amount of work to implement
> this feature and I'm actually not that far-away from a working demo.
> If you are willing to help out, I'm certainly willing to either give
> you a copy of what I have so far or we could work together on getting
> this done. I also have some more ideas for how to enhance column view
> to make it much, much better than what Apple currently has! (In the
> interest of full disclosure, I'm writing this on a mac though).
>
> So here's what I currently have: a partially working gtk widget that
> implements column view itself. This may sound strange but after you
> start working with the code, and thinking about how to go about this,
> it will become obvious that a widget is a "right way". Since I've
> been working on this off and on since June I've had ample time to
> think things over. What this widget does is attempt to replicate the
> functionality that a person gets when they use a GtkTreeView. Because
> of MCV, or model-view-controller, how things are viewed is entirely
> up to the viewing widget. Current the 'list view' is implement as a
> GtkTreeView, but if you think about it it has *exactly* the same type
> of functionality that a GtkColumnView would want. The model (i.e.
> directory structure) in the back-end is still the same and can be
> used the same way. Even the nautilus code for the list view would
> only have to be slightly changed for things to work correctly. I know
> that's a lot to soak up if you've only just started.
>
> I don't know how much you know about nautilus already, but if you're
> just starting out I have some suggestions.  You'll probably want to
> start off by reading the nautilus internals document, at least that's
> where I started. The next stop is unfortunately the code, which while
> great is nonetheless extremely complicated to wrap your mind around.
> Of course I don't have that much experience myself and this is my
> first project for nautilus, and that doesn't help a whole lot.
>
> In any case, I look forward to hearing from you!
>
> Mark Kegel
>
> On Nov 21, 2006, at 10:14 AM, Fabrice Tiercelin 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 :)
> > --
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