GSoC idea : Adding a Clutter view to Nautilus

[Gaëtan <gaet morin gmail com>]

I agree that I have been really sparse on details. Let me try to explain a little bit more what I'd like to achieve.

Problem:

Today one of the big problems in file management is that users have to deal with large amount out files in many different formats.

How the FM view can help:

- It could provide users with a custom presentation for each type of data, (e.g. Windows' photo roll view)
- It could provide a way to quickly preview files without opening them, and without having a preview sidebar constantly taking 1/4 of the window (thumbnails already provides this to some extent, but more can be done, see the links below)
- It could allow users to visually group files by type, date, etc (see the links below).

Examples:
-Spotlight is not a FM but has some good ideas : type-specific view[1] (images presented by icons, others in a list) in-window preview[2]
-FileBrowse[3] is a file browser for mac, and it has a lot of ideas including nice folder "thumbnails", smart grouping, group folding, in-window previews, ... (the home page has a lot of screenshots). The UI may seem strange but in use it is convincing. I've only used it for a short time because I don't own a mac, but file browsing does feel easier with this soft.

Why Clutter?

Well, it's not because of the hype around it. With a canvas library it would be possible to make custom layouts in a very flexible way. And the ability to make animations is a big plus. E.g. in the case of the in-window preview, animating the appearance/disappearance of the preview is not just useless bling. If it is done well, it can provides visual clues that help the user understand what is happening.

What am I proposing?

I think the first step toward these ideas would be to write some code on wich they would be easy to implement. This means having a Nautilus view wrote with Clutter that achieves feature parity with other views. Then, if there is time, start experimenting and adding features.
This is what I was proposing in my last mail (and that is why I did not talk about specific UI ideas). If you think I should better start experimenting new ideas first, then I am totally for it ;) .

I hope this helps understanding my last e-mail, and why I think this is important for Nautilus.


[1] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Spotlight_Grouping.png
[2] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/7/7b/Spotlight_Window_Anemone.png
[3] http://www.filebrowse.com/