Re: Nautilus Must-Fix List - Revision 2

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 05Sep2001 04:11PM (-0400), Brian Crescimanno wrote:
> On Wed, 2001-09-05 at 15:10, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> > 
> > I agree that this would be a nice additional feature. Calling it a
> > "must fix" sounds a bit extreme when there are probably worse
> > usability problems.
> 
> 
> 	I think this one is basically a user-specific thing.  Some users 	think
> that one of the most important things they can do is have a
> 	"clean" desktop.  
> 
> 	The only reason I suggest it as a must fix feature is that it is
> 	a really nice feature that is already present in a lot of other
> 	packages, and should be easy enough to integrate into Nautilus.

It's probably less than a week of work, but probably more than an
hour.
 
> > > Main Window:  General
> > > 1.	The titlebar needs to be a bit more descriptive than listing
> > > 	a simple one word directory name
> > >      
> > > 	PROPOSED SOLUTION:
> > > 	Use a full path rather than just the current directory.
> > > 	A lot of people have directories with the same name
> > > 	in different paths, this will clear up any confusion.
> > 
> > There's a reason it's done the way it is now. In the task list, when a
> > window title is too long to fit, the name gets cut off at the end. The
> > Nautilus developers thought it was more likely users would be looking
> > at files or directories with different base names but in the same
> > general part of the filesystem than with the same name but in
> > different parts of the filesystem. So we decided to show only the base
> > name since this was the part most likely to be different.
> > 
> > To give a concrete example, suppose you are visiting the following two
> > directories in different windows: /usr/local/my-files/music/rock and
> > /usr/local/my-files/music/pop. If the task list only has room to show
> > 20 characters, then if you use the full path as the title, you get:
> > 
> > [/usr/local/my-fil...]
> > [/usr/local/my-fil...]
> > 
> > With the basename only, you get:
> > 
> > [   rock   ]
> > [   pop    ]
> > 
> > Perhaps if there was a hint to make the task list ellipsize window
> > titles at the beginning or in the middle instead of at the end, we
> > could change this behavior.
> 
> 
> 	I'll mention that to the GTK+ must-fix list guys...and maybe we
> 	can get that hint put into gnome.  Until then, I have to agree
> 	with you on this point.
> 

This is really an issue for the task list panel applet, not gtk+ I
think.

 
> > > Main Window:  View as List
> > > 1.	Needs to be split into "simple list" and "detailed list"
> > > 
> > > 	REASON:
> > > 	Some directories..like giant directories of documents and such,
> > > 	are too long to be listed in the standard icon format and be
> > > 	easy to deal with.  However, you don't need the full details
> > > 	of the file, a simple "list with icons" would be great (similar
> > > 	to the Windows explorer "View as list" feature).
> > 
> > How about using the icon view with a smaller zoom level? I think
> > that's more or less equivalent to what you want. We could even put the
> > label to the right instead of below the icon at smaller zoom levels.
> 
> 	
> 	After some testing, It think if we did put the text next to the
> 	icons at the 50% zoom level and less, and set the window to wrap
> 	horizontally instead of vertically, we'd have a nice "Listing"
> 	view (perhaps make those setting into a "simple list" default
> 	setting which would basically just be a modified icon view.
 
Horizontal scrolling is evil. I think we should not copy that aspect
of the windows feature.

> 	While I do agree, I was trying to look at it from a performance
> 	standpoint (though I see now that I didn't do a very good job
> 	of conveying this).  I'm not sure how much of a performance
> 	boost might be gained by removing it, but that's kind of where
> 	I was going with that suggestion.

I doubt there would be any kind of performance boost. It's not loaded
unless the user selects the music view.
 
> > > 2.	Clean Up
> > > 
> > > 	REASON:
> > > 	This screen looks like it was thrown together in 30 seconds.  
> > > 	Clean up the select boxes and stuff, it looks pretty scattered
> > > 	at the moment
> > 
> > Can you be more specific about what you'd like changed?
> 
> 
> 	Let me think on it a bit more.  I don't know really, it just
> 	looks a little too cluttered...not sure what we could do about
> 	it yet, but I'll think on it.
> 

I agree the layout is not great, but specific suggestions would help
here.

> 	Perhaps using the name "Themes & Appearance" would be better
> 	(as I agree, not all the appearance prefs are about theming)
> 	To be fair, the most common use of that dialog is going to be
> 	to modify themes, so it should at least appear somewhere in the
> 	title of the dialog.

"Themes & Appearance" sou
Are there really users who won't 

> 	I tend to agree with the "general preferences" section being a 
> 	bad idea...I'm just not sure where we can move things like 
> 	"keyboard shortcuts" that don't really fit into their current
> 	categories...

Well, that particular keyboard shortcut applies to the window,
although perhaps it could also go into "Bavigation".

> 
> > > Preferences:  Search
> > > 1.	Move this to the Navigation window
> > > 
> > > 	REASON:
> > > 	There's no reason to have an entire window for one preference.
> > 
> > I see two preferences in "Search". I'm not sure if it would be as easy
> > for users to find them if they were in a "Navigation" category.
> 
> 	All I see under there is "search engine location" and I'm in
> 	'expert" mode.  

I also see:

+---Search Complexity Options----------------------------+
|                                                        |
|   o Search for files by file name only.                |   
|   o Search for files by file name and file properties. |
|                                                        |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
 
Perhaps this option appears only if you build with medusa support.

 - Maciej