Re: [Usability] Efficient navigation in nautilus

[Christian Schneider <c schneider scram de>]

> > > I have trouble understanding why the tab is needed (other than the
> > > previous usage pattern (bash), which is usually not a good reason to
> > > do something).
> > >      
> > I agree that tab is not a good idea as it is used for switching the 
> > focus in dialogs and windows.
> > What would you suggest to trigger the completion?
> >    
>
> Typing, the way it works now. There is no need to trigger it by an
> extra keypress. And I am talking about the completion, not the
> mentioned window.
>  
Ok let me try to explain how the completion works now and what I donīt 
like about it.
btw. I am talking about Version 2.6 so perhaps some of it changed in 
2.6.1. I will try this one as
soon as it is available on Fedora.

The first thing is when I am in a folder and press Ctrl-L I get the 
location dialog. But the current location is selected. So when I try to 
navigate based on my current position I have to enter "right" and "/". 
Perhaps the Location dialog should start with the current path plus "/" 
and not selected. So you can just start navigating.
The problem is only that it is then more difficult to start a new 
navigation from the root dir. But I guess this is more seldom then 
navigating based on where you are.

The next thing is when I want to activate completion. When there is only 
one completion I see it selected and can use it by typing "right" on the 
cursor pad.
One problem abbout that is that the cursor pad is too far away. I canīt 
write fast when I have to move my fingers away from the 10 fingers 
writing position. (Although I donīt really write with 10 fingers ;-) but 
I think you know what I mean.

The other thing is that I canīt trigger showing other possible 
completions with the "right" key. As left and right are used to navigate 
inside the input field. It would be nice to have a completion key like 
in bash that selects the one possible completion by pressing it one time 
and shows several completions when pressing it two times. And like I 
saig it should be inside the range on the keyboard that you can access 
in 10 fingers mode.

If these keys were not as far away as the right key I had a good idea 
what to take. The "down" key could trigger selecting the completion and 
the up key could trigger going one directory up. So you have the 
metaphor of going one level down or one level up in the tree. Perhaps 
they could be used anyway as up and down have no really good use in an 
input field. At the moment down leaves the input field for the cancel 
button. But I canīt think of anyone who would need that.

btw. I also canīt think of anyone who would need the tab key for 
switching input elements inside the dialog. If you want open you can 
type enter if you want to cancel you select esc. Anyone who does not 
know this can still press the buttons with the mouse. So perhaps tab 
would be not so bad for completion even if it is not consistent with 
normal behaviour.

>  
>
> > > I'm not an expert in the spatial metaphor, but I think changing the
> > > contents of a window (that is supposed to be a folder) by some input
> > > field that is detached from its context would break it. At least it would
> > > have to be somehow indicated that this is not all that this object
> > > (folder) consists of, but a filtered subset of it.
> > >      
> > That is the reason why I want to trigger the display of files by a 
> > double tab (or something similar) like in bash.
> > Someone who doesnīt know the scheme will not accidently trigger it.
> >    
>
> Yeah, probably not.
>  
I think it is important that showing several possible completions is not 
done automatically while typing as it would distract the user extremely.

> > Besides as you wrote some visual hint could be shown to signal the
> > user that some contents are filtered and of course there should be
> > some kind of button to reset the folder view so it shows everything again.
> >    
>
> Please not another button! ;)
>  
You are probably right. So the search bar is probably not such a good 
idea after all ;-)

>  
>
> > Perhaps it could be some kind of search toolbar like in mozilla. That 
> > shows the current filter and can be emptied with a clear button at the 
> > end. This could then also be used for normal searches.
> >    
>
> That doesn't sound like a file manager, that sounds like a search window.
> Which would make much more sense, since file manger is for managing
> files, not to search for them.
>  
Yes ... I am not so sure about this search function. Things like that do 
not work well in the spatial mode.
If you add something like a tool bar or a search bar it is always inside 
all windows. But the windows should
look clean so you better donīt add too much ;-)

> [On the location dialog and its drop-down-list]
>  
>
> > The problem with selecting is that you canīt select many possible
> > completions from a list with the up and down keys and it should
> > not be necessary to use the mouse.
> >    
>
> I don't understand why anyone would want to select many completions
> at once. And why the selecting would affect normal operation in case
> one doesn't select anything, but just use the list as a hint of possible
> completions.
>  
Thatīs what I meant. I probably wrote it a little complicated ;-) I 
meant you canīt effectively select one completion from a larger list by 
up and down keys. But it is not necessary as you can just type it.

Christian Schneider