Re: [Nautilus-list] Notebooks [Was: Re: Installation-time...]

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl> writes:

> Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> 
> > Yeah, the classic problem with notebooks is that when there are too
> > many tabs, the whole thing sucks. I think a list is a better choice
> > than a conventional notebook widget when there are many
> > categories. See the UI hall of shame for what happens when you have
> > too many tabs (multiple rows of tabs and tabs that scroll off the side
> > are an utter disaster; even without either of these long rows of tabs
> > are bad because it's easier to scan a long list vertically than
> > horizontally ).
> 
> I feel urged to point out how the Notebook widget in OS/2 Warp 4
> approaches the many-tabs-problem. Perhaps it has its weaknesses but I
> feel it's certainly elegant, and some ideas could be borrowed.
> 
> Anyway, the deal is this:
> 
> * There is only one row of tabs, that are visually distinguised not
> only by form but also by color. If the number of tabs is larger than
> the available screen space, a small tab with an arrow pointing left
> and one with an arrow pointing right is placed on the corresponding
> ends of the visible tab row.
> * you can have multiple sub-pages per tab. This is indicated by a
> small indicator 'Page 1/3' on the top right corner of the tab
> page. Clicking on an arrow as mentioned above will first take you to
> the next subpage, if the last subpage has been reached it will take
> you to the next tab.
> * A vertical list of all available tabs can be obtained by
> right-clicking anywhere on the row of tabs. A pop-up menu with all tab
> names will appear. Sub-pages are handled in a one level deep
> submenu. Personally, I think this (great) feature should be made a bit
> more visually obvious. But this illustrates once more that in the
> Workplace Shell, the right mouse button actually has a function...!

Note that GtkNotebook has this tab-menu feature as well though
it (and scrolling tabs) have to be enabled by the programmer.

While it may add convenience to scrolling tabs, I think any sort
of scrolling tab / hidden tab feature is pretty cryptic.

The real answer is perhasp "have less options" ...

                                        Owen