Re: [Usability] File type system redesign

[Seth Nickell <snickell stanford edu>]

> i was wondering if you could provide a less verbose summary of your
> email regarding file types.

sure, here's a version that skips the analysis and pretty much gives the
conclusion:

1) Having a single central place for setting file types sucks because
the list of types ends up being too long, and its not when the user
needs the information anyway

2) A better solution would be to make the mime type system localized to
document (well, really document-types) by putting it in the file
properties tab in Nautilus like so:

   http://beauty.stanford.edu/actions-tab-mockup.png

As well as a second tab that allows setting information about the type
(need to finish glading the mockup). There are some tricky interaction
details, particularly surrounding the case when a type does not yet
exist, so if one were planning to implement such an interface, it would
be good for them to read the last section of the long version which
describes these interactions. I'll try to add more detail (and of course
a mockup) as to how the sub-dialogues like "Add Application"
could/should work later.

cheers,

-Seth