Re: Feature request for nautilus/desktop navigation

[Cliff Wells <cliff develix com>]

On Thu, 2007-06-28 at 01:10 +0200, Christof Kr�rote:
> Hello Cliff,
> 
> On Tue, 2007-06-26 at 21:18 -0700, Cliff Wells wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Just thought I'd post this here to start a argume^Wdiscussion about this
> > idea:
> > 
> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=441928
> 
> personally, I dislike the idea for the following reasons:
> 
> 1. I can imagine people "loosing" files somewhere on the file system
> just because they have dragged something onto the desktop while it was
> currently set to display /home/johndoe/pictures/2007/from_camera/temp
> for example.

Well, if people were stuck in the existing paradigm of "a single
desktop", then yes I'd agree.  However I don't think this concept is
beyond a user's comprehension.  It's valid concern, but I don't think it
would be an issue in real use.  Besides, I'm suggesting this as an
option, much like "use home directory as desktop", so it wouldn't affect
users who didn't change it explicitly.

> 2. Similar to #1: Several programs default to store files on the desktop
> by default (e.b. web browsers). "Which" desktop will it be? The actual
> desktop, the folder it is currently displaying? How is the user supposed
> to know?

Except that Firefox doesn't store things on "the Desktop", rather it
defaults to ~/Desktop, which is a different thing altogether (unless
this feature were to be implemented by relinking ~/Desktop to the
current working directory, at which point you are right).  The right
answer might be for Firefox (and other applications) to stop putting
things on the desktop by default (I've seen enough people with 8000
icons on their desktops to think that it's a bad idea anyway).

> 3. You can move icons on the desktop around and resize them. Placing
> files and folders on the desktop in addition to what is already there
> would result in a mess.

I don't see your point here, sorry.  I'm not talking about placing
things on the desktop so much as having the desktop able to navigate the
filesystem (again, as an option).  

The point isn't to complicate life for people with simple needs, rather
to simplify things for people with complicated needs ;-)  

I know it's usually a stretch to use metaphors from real life when it
comes to software, but I'll do it anyway: when I use my real desk, I
don't open a drawer and work inside of it for a while, then close that
drawer, open another and work inside of it on another task.  Not even
opening several drawers at once is a real solution.  I take the things
out of the drawers and put them on the desktop for the duration of that
task.  The way Nautilus (and other traditional fs browsers) currently
work makes you keep stuff in the drawers while you work, leaving the big
clean desktop unused (except perhaps for a pretty picture).  Now
obviously I *could* move everything to the desktop and move it back when
I'm done, but I think we'd all agree that would be a pretty suboptimal
solution.


Regards,
Cliff