[Usability]Tree sidebar (was: Re: Nautilus bugs and design choices (back-button))

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl>]

Hi Mathias,

> > Not if you extend the functionality of the tree side panel to have
> > incremental search capacity (with or without an accompanying textfield).
> > Then the advanced user can still go where he wants with a few keystrokes.

> 	1) You'd have to get all those magic URL schemas supported
> 	   gnome-vfs (applications: , preferences:, whatever:) into the

hmm, I didn't take this into account, my idea was limited to incrementally
searching the visible contents of the tree. Entering all kinds of URLs is
a bit out of scope for that.

> 	2) How do I reach sites in the web with such a tree?

I guess you don't, for all the reasons you listed. There could be an "Open
URL" dialog though, like many browsers have. (Ctrl+O iirc)

> 	3) Of course you tree will support copy'n'paste -- but who'll come
> 	   to the mad idea of pasting text into your tree view? It's
> 	   definitly not a text area.

No, that would definately not be a good idea. In fact I don't see the
point of copying & pasting within a tree; at least not when the dragging
functionality is properly implemented with auto-scrolling when the list is
too long, etc.

> 	4) An entry field in a sidebar will be pretty small and so it
> 	   will be damn hard to read/to edit.

Agreed, therefore I don't think an entry field should be visible in the
sidebar at all times. If one would be used then I would be in favor of one
that would dynamically appear when the incremental-search-hotkey-combo is
pressed and disappear when the user has selected an item (and/or after a
certain amount of time).

> to -- and well: If the GUIs designed by their UI gurus just are
> inconvenient, unusable for a good number of (maybe I have to add

I agree that CDE is clunky and inconvenient, but it wasn't designed by Sun
alone (GNOME isn't either).

bye,

-- 

Reinout van Schouwen			Artificial Intelligence student
email: reinout cs vu nl			mobile phone: +31-6-44360778
GPG public key http://www.cs.vu.nl/~reinout/reinout.asc