Re: Column view update & issues & tabs

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Wed, 2007-03-28 at 19:15 +0200, Francesco Fumanti wrote:
> At 5:50 PM +0200 3/28/07, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> >On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 13:18 +0200, Francesco Fumanti wrote:
> >  > I realise that creating tabs will probably imply another another non
> >>  negligible amount of coding. Could you please tell me what you think
> >>  about the tabs idea?
> >
> >We have avoided adding tabs to nautilus. It makes the UI and the
> >interaction model quite a bit more complicated,
> 
> Considering that today the tabs are present in mainstream 
> applications like Firefox, it is not something new for the user; so 
> the statement that it is to complicated could be discussed; but that 
> is not my intention here. (By the way, when has the decision been 
> taken to avoid tabs; maybe it is outdated in the meantime.)

The discussion has happened on this list in the past. I don't have an
exact link to the decisions, as it has happened multiple times spread
out over the years.

> But you are right in the sense that people should not be obliged to 
> use tabs. In Firefox for example, it is without problems possible to 
> work with multiple windows; there are two radio buttons to specify 
> whether a new page should open in a new tab or in a new window.
> 
> But let us assume that you are right and it is to complicated. 
> Assuming moreover that tabs will be optional as in Firefox, and that 
> the default setting would be not to use the tabs, there would be by 
> default no change in the usage of nautilus; however more advanced 
> users could enable the tab functionality if they want it.

The fact that firefox has tabs doesn't really translate directly to
nautilus though. Web browsing is quite a different thing than browsing
some local files. The tabs in a browser are much more likely to be
widely used since you'll be browsing an enourmous resource (the web).
However, they don't give the same advantage with local file browsing,
where you're not likely to have as many locations you browse.

Even though multiple tabs are not immediately thrown in the users face
they are still gonna be there in various aspects in the UI (especially
once you start to add extra features to take advantage of tabs). And it
means the total mental model of how the application works is
significantly more complicated. The normal model of how to handle
multiple views in the gnome desktop is really to use multiple windows
(and the window manager is supposed to help you do this) and each time
we deviate from this model we have to weight the advantages and the
costs. In this case i don't think the advantages are great enough,
especially considering that Nautilus goal isn't really to be a
power-users filemanager, but rather an easy to use file manager for
everyone.

> >especially when using
> >spatial mode (what does a tab even mean in that model?).
> 
> Sorry; unfortunately I don't know what you mean by "spatial mode". 
> Could you please explain to me what it means; I might then be able to 
> understand you.

Wow. You managed to miss the whole spatial vs navigational discussion? I
guess it was a while since it happened.

Here is the traditionally recommended first reading about spatial file
management interfaces:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/finder.ars

I guess you use Ubunty, which has switched the default from spatial mode
to browser mode. It can be toggled with the "Always open in browser
window" setting in the behaviour tab.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a witless pirate Green Beret with a secret. She's a manipulative 
nymphomaniac soap star with an evil twin sister. They fight crime!