Re: [Usability] Automagic cleanup of home folder

[Mariano Suarez-Alvarez <msuarezalvarez arnet com ar>]

On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 15:03 +0100, Maarten Menheere wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-01-24 at 22:51 -0500, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> > On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 10:35 +0100, Maarten Menheere wrote:
> > > Usually when working on something I make a new folder for it an put the
> > > files there. In that folder after working on something for a while I get
> > > a lot of old cruft I don't need. I then make an Old folder and put al
> > > the garbage that could still potatialy have information I need in there.
> > > 
> > > My point is after working on something for a while things start to get
> > > messy. You don't even wan to see the My Documents folder of my parents
> > > XP box. I have probably given up on organising that one.
> > > 
> > > As disk start bigger the need to delete stuff gets less important (not
> > > talking about video but ordinary files) I think its a good idea to just
> > > magicaly let files slip under the waterline after a sertain time. That
> > > way you never have to delete anything and you only see what is current
> > > in the Gui view of the filesystem.  
> > 
> > No.  no no no.  No.  It is quite common to have documents around you
> > rarely (if ever) edit, but yet need to read.  We have tons of examples
> > of this at my work (transcriptions and minutes of old board meetings),
> > and even at home you see examples like people keeping notes and such.  I
> > have a document on my disk now that's almost a year old, but I've never
> > edited it (it's a PDF - I don't even have software to edit it, easily at
> > least) that I open up for printing every couple weeks.  (It's a form.)
> 
> Well I think we argee here :), sorry for not being clear enough. The
> filesystem view should only show files you use often. I did not intend
> it to filter on last time saved but also used in some way, like opening
> clicking etc. 

Well, the files which are not used often are the ones which are the most
likely the user will need to see in order to find them... The others he
pretty much will remember where they are, since he uses them frequently.

> > Users need to organize their files.  That's their problem for being
> > sloppy, just as if they left piles of paper on their real desk.
> 
> I agree but sometimes this just doesn't work. I've told my parents to
> clean up their stuff loads of times (hmm this sounds weird :) ). And you
> haven't seen my desk, I'm still looking for that autodesk cleaning
> robot. If you are able to make things easier than you should IMHO. 

Hmmm, I'm not sure pedagogical file managers is what we need...

> > A metadata system would also get around this, as users could search for
> > all word processor documents less than a month old that contain the
> > topic cheese, or whatever.
> > 
> > Simply hiding files from view (and thus likely making the user think
> > they're gone) is *definitely* the wrong answer.
> 
> That's the one real problem I see. I'm not sure on a clean way of
> showing to the user that files are not really gone just not shown. 
> Possible solutions (bit of brainstorming here):
> 1. Nothing ever gets deleted on the assumption that this is possible in
> the future with larger disks. Users have to get used to this. Do a
> search for it when look for something less recent. You often don't know
> where you put it anyhow. 
> 2. A show all files button. Hmm 
> 3. An archives row at the bottom of a filesystem view where less userd
> files of the current folder are shown.
> 4. A virtual archives folder.

Apart from 1, these kind of things will only complicate rather clear
interface nautilus people have gotten us. Specially in a spatial
“context” where the user gets to puts things in folder windows in a
persistent way, moving things around when they become “old” is not a
good idea.

I can only think of dimming out/making transparent the icons when their
access time goes a lot into the past (and only in the icon view: let the
user add the Date Accessed column to column views in that case...) as a
way to do what you want non disruptively. I am not sure it is worth the
work, though.

Cheers,

-- m


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Mariano Suárez-Alvarez
Departamento de Matemática - FCEyN - Universidad de Buenos Aires
Ciudad Universitaria, Pab. I. (1428) Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://mate.dm.uba.ar/~aldoc9

        De la observación de la irreductibilidad de las creencias
        últimas he sacado la mayor lección de mi vida. Aprendí a
        respetar las ideas ajenas, a detenerme ante el secreto de las
        conciencias, a entender antes de discutir, a discutir antes de
        condenar. Y como estoy en vena de confesiones, hago una más,
        quizás superflua: detesto con toda mi alma a los fanáticos.
        
          Norberto Bobbio, Italia civil.
        
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