Re: [Usability]short-run nautilus improvements

[Dave Bordoley <bordoley msu edu>]

Before anyone rushes to file bugs here are some comments and links to
existing bugs that address the issues. Commenting on the bugs is
probably a good idea.

On Sat, 2002-11-30 at 19:38, Gregory Merchan wrote:
> These are changes I'd make to Nautilus in the short run. I'm looking at
> version 2.0.7, so some of these may not apply.
> 
> There are other things I'd change in the long run, but I'm trying to
> keep this down to "ui-review"-type changes.
> 
> General
> -------
>  - Selections in folder views should follow the Gtk+ 2.x convention of
>    changing the highlight color according to focus. Without this there
>    is no way to discern whether the desktop is focussed.

Dave fixed this.

>  - Get rid of the "Switch to Manual Layout?" alert.

I'll point you to this thread:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2002-June/msg00261.html

This is one of those hotly debated issues. The maintainers in the past
have mentioned that they would much prefer a more complete solution to
how the icon view should work as oppose to just removing the dialog.

>  - The default window size is very large. If possible, make the defualt
>    size smaller depending on whether the side pane, toolbar, location bar,
>    and status bar are shown by default. When they're all off, about 400x270
>    is pretty good. Maybe something based on the number of items would be
>    better. (I doubt this is a short run change, but I've included it in
>    case I'm mistaken.)

agreed see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75426 for some
discussion. FWIW, I think i remember seeing it hard-coded in the code so
its probably more than a ui-review type change.

> 
> Desktop context menu
> --------------------
>  - Provide access via Shift+F10 when no items are selected. It is now only
>    accessible via Ctrl+F10. (I made a lucky guess to discover that.)

Is there an accessiblity standard here?

>  - "New Window"   should be "Open Home Folder",

I think we should just remove this and make home the desktop, but "open
home folder" is certainly better than "new window"

>  - "New Terminal" should be "Open Command Shell",

I still fail to understand why this is even in the context menu, but
agree that this is at least clearer. 

>  - Remove "Clean Up by Name" and use the "Arrange Items" submenu of the
>    folder context menu.

see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=87330 and
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=74927 for some discussion on
this. The main problem is that in nautilus "arrange items" is for hard
sorted layout only. Clean up by name is use manual layout. all this mode
stuff is confusing and needs to be worked out i gueess. 

>  - Remove "Use Default Background"
>  - Remove "Change Desktop Background"
>  - Add "Properties" which should provide access to at least the
>    background changer.

Yeah I like this idea too. I proposed removing the "Use default
Background" entry awhile ago, but the maints didn't go for it. It would
be very nice though to be able to look at the properties of the
currently viewed folder and in this case integrating the background
stuff into the desktop properties makes sense i guess. But this is
probably more of a future type change i would think.

> 
> Folder context menu
> -------------------
>  - Remove "New Window"

see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=82463

>  - Remove "Use Default Background"
>  - Add "Properties" or "Folder Properties" for access to folder properties.

see above

> 
> File context menu
> -----------------
>  - Show this menu to the immediate right of the last selected item
>    regardless of cursor position.
>  - Remove "Open in This Window"/"Open in New Window"

yeah i think users should just choose their mode of operation and go
with it. 

>  - Place the default "Open" action at the top of the "Open With" menu,
>    This gives the user a way to know what it is.

in the ideal worl "open with" would be the first menu entry and would be
a conditional cascading menu of course :)

>  - Remove "Remove Custom Icon". This is provided in the Properties view.

This is already fixed.

> 
> File menu
> ---------
>  - Remove "New Window"

nod

>  - Remove "Open in This Window"/"Open in New Window"

nod

>  - Change "Properties" shortcut to Alt+Enter (Like MS Windows)

I think ctrl+I is specified in the hig, isn't it?

>  - Remove "Close All Windows"

I basically agree with this as close all windows is about as ambiguous a
menu entry as I've ever seen. If you are using open in new window mode
though a "Close Parent Folders" menu entry would be kind of nice though.

>  - Change "Close Window" to "Close Folder" or just "Close"

nod


>  - Remove "Empty Trash" when the trash is not in view.

While i agree the maints didn't see
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2002-November/msg00007.html
and
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95116

> 
> Edit menu
> ---------
>  - Remove "Remove Custom Icon". This is provided in the Properties view

This is fixed in 2.1

> .
>  - Remove icon stretching items or move them to the File menu.
>  - If "Background and Emblems" can be a special folder or somewhere else
>    in the desktop, move it there.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93697

>  - Remove "Preferences" to the control center.

The preferences now are in the control center, they are still in the
menu as well. 

> Bookmarks menu
> --------------
>   Remove this menu.

agree see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=82104. Bookmarks
make about zero sense for a file manager, especially considering we now
have a Network location folder where users can add links to ftp/webdave/
etc sites.

> 
> Toolbar
> -------
>   - Remove the throbber.
>   - Place the Zoom control here.
>   - Place the View As control here.

see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=80363 for discussion of
the last two points. 


> Statusbar
> ---------
>   - Show total item count of when no items are selected.
>   - Show progress here.

Some more statusbar suggessions
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=96816

> 
> Preferences
> -----------
>   I understand there are many changes in CVS, so I won't bother.
> 

The one thing i would like to see would be the removal of the default
view preferences replaced by the inheritance of metadata by folders from
their parent, but this is kind of a future idea i guess. For those
interested see http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99137



> Backgrounds and Emblems
> -----------------------
>  - Make these special folders or global utilities.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93697 recommends this exact
idea.

dave