[Usability] Adding a "recent locations" button?

[Maurizio Colucci <seguso forever tin it>]

Hello there,

I have an idea which I believe could solve the problem (which some people 
think exists) with spatial nautilus. Namely, the fact that 

1) The middle click (or shift+click?), which closes the parent folder, is not 
discoverable.

2) Even for who knows about the middle click, when I enter a folder I don't 
know (and I don't want to decide) whether or not I will need the parent 
folder again. Forcing such an early decision is a design error.

Proposed solution:

1) when I enter a window (single click or double, depending on the global 
setting), make the parent close by default;

2) Add a "recent locations" button to the gnome panel which, when pressed, 
pops up a list of the most recently visited locations (ordered recent-first). 
Clicking any item reopens the location (if closed).

This way, I am not forced to decide early whether the location will be needed 
again. When, AND IF, I need a recent location, I can simply click the 
"recent-locations" button and choose the location.

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Of course, each time the user enters a folder, from ANY nautilus window, the 
recent locations list should be updated. So the list is in some sense 
"global" (not relative to a single window).

You would also probably need to show the full path in the recent locations 
list.

--------

Possible additions:

Also add a "favourite locations" button. Similar to the bookmarks in KDE or 
Windows. It is a natural addition and solves some problem which would be off 
topic to discuss now.


A working prototype of this behavior can be found in my program, called 
(temporarily) "Logical desktop". Unfortunately there's no home page yet. 
Source code available with (mind the newline)

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous cvs sourceforge net:/cvsroot/segusoland checkout 
logicaldesktop


Comments are welcome.

Maurizio