Re: [Usability] Adding a "recent locations" button?

[Maurizio Colucci <seguso forever tin it>]

On Thursday 10 June 2004 12:06 pm, Brian P. Skahan wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-06-10 at 17:44 -0400, Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> > 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;
>
> This may be a valuable option, but I think it should be an option, and
> probably not the default.  It breaks alot of the benefits of the spacial
> model.  If I want move files around in a project tree, I need the top
> folder of the tree open.

Then you reopen it (by clicking it in the recent location's list). I don't see 
the problem.

On the other hand, it is not strictly necessary to default to close. The 
important thing is having a recent locations list, so I don't have to mind 
whether the location I need is open or not.

> "Open in same window" is useful for drilling down 
> to a particular location ("browsing" for a file), but much less useful for
> managing files.
>
> I agree that alot of features in nautilus right now are very undiscoverable
> - shift-click, alt-up, middle-click, Cntrl-L and that's an issue.
>
> > 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.
>
> I think it may be better to replace the nautilus bottom-left drop down
> with the cookie crumb widget fromt he new file selector.

I'm sorry, I don't rembemer the cookie crumb widget (I uninstalled fedora 
2 :-)), so I can't see what you mean.

Anyway, I don't see why you want to put that widget (which opens a GLOBAL list 
I suppose) in each nautilus window. Since the list is global, the gnome-panel 
seems more suited to contain the button.

> Its more discoverable than the current dropdown and would be consistent
> across the desktop.  Additionally, it provides "recent" location bot up
> and down the tree.
>
> > 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.
>
> Absolutely, favorites/bookmarks need to be consistent across nautilus and
> the file manager, I think there's some plans for this in nautilus.
>
> > cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous cvs sourceforge net:/cvsroot/segusoland
> > checkout logicaldesktop
>
> I'll try to build it tonight.
>
> -Brian

bye,

Maurizio