Re: Nautilus file browser sort by use

[Christian Neumair <cneumair gnome org>]

El mar, 22-04-2008 a las 13:40 -0300, Ricardo Ayres Severo escribió:
> Is there a way to sort files by access frequency?
> 
> If there isn't, a nautilus plugin could do this?
> 
> I'm a programmer and am willing to write such plugin, (if the time to
> do this is no more than a weekend, as the time is scarce here).
> If it is possible, can you give some starting directions?

I think that exposing frequently used items in the GUI is a great idea.
If we decide to implement it, it should be shipped with Nautilus, and I
can help you to implement it.

However, before coding anything, we have to think hard:

A) Decide how this is exposed it in the GUI, maybe by talking to the
usability guys (usability-list gnome org).

Sorting the entire directory is one option. Another is to have a special
area for very folder view, only containing frequently accessed items.
Some other more simple ideas are proposed in C).

B) What does "frequently" mean?

However this feature is implemented, it has to be decided what items
should be preferred. I.e. some recent accesses could be preferred over
many ancient accesses.

C) Can we "keep it simple"?

Exposing such a feature for all folder we have may just be overhead and
clutter the GUI. After all, you usually work 95% of your time with 5%
of the folders, so maybe a "Recent Folders" list in the panel and/or in
the Nautilus window menus may be more straightforward for some if not
most of the cases.

Or maybe bookmark addition should be proposed for frequently used
folders.

Maybe you could elaborate a bit on your use case, i.e. what is your
directory hierarchy, what shortcomings you see with the current behavior
etc.? I've seen many people working on computers, and most of them just
seem to remember where their folders/documents are located on the screen
in a flat scrollable list.


best regards,
 Christian Neumair

-- 
Christian Neumair <cneumair gnome org>