[Usability] Efficient navigation in nautilus

[Christian Schneider <c schneider scram de>]

Gnome 2.6 introduces a spatial navigation model. This means that each 
folder coresponds to a certain window with a different size and position 
that is saved permanently. While this concept is quite well known 
already, gnome tries to do it a little better than other graphical 
environments. While I like the spatial idea there are some chances for 
improvements.

The first thing is an up button. While you can go down the path without 
opening many windows by clicking with the middle key there is no way to 
go up again and still stay with one window.

The second thing is the quick location entry. You can open a location 
input field by typing Ctrl-L. It even supports tab completion. But 
compared with the bash shell tab completion that is not enough. If there 
are several paths that start with the same part you are stuck if you 
donīt exactly know the name.

My idea to solve the problem is to open a simple input field in the 
lower left corner when Ctrl-L is pressed. It could even stay there 
permanently. When you type a path the matching folder windows could 
open. If you type tab and there is only one matching path it will be 
opened like before. If there are several possibilities the folder window 
could show the possible completions. Then you can go on typing or click 
the folder or file. So we have the graphical appearence of spatial 
browsing and the speed and features of bash tab completion.

I have illustrated my idea with an image on my site:
http://www.liquid-reality.de/main/interests/nautilus_nav

If the path input field is shown permanently it could adapt to the 
folder shown. It could even show the current file path when I edit a 
document in gedit.

I would be very interested in your opinions on this ideas. Is something 
like this already planned? Is it possible? Does it conform to the 
general idea of spatial navigation?

Christian Schneider