Re: [Usability] Interacting with open folders

[John Keller <jkeller matchbox fr>]

Steven Garrity wrote:
> Maurizio Colucci wrote:
>
> > Wouldn't it be better to supply a button, in the window, to select the 
> > open folder? So you would select the folder the same way you select 
> > its files. And you can keep using the existing menu (and the 
> > right-mouse menu if you like), with no clutter I can see.
> >
> > The question remains how to extend this to drag the open folder to 
> > some other place.
>
>
> Yeah, not being able to drag an open window into the trash is a strange 
> hole. That said, the behaviour of dragging windows and dragging nautilus 
> file/folder objects is clearly different.
>
> Maybe this is a case for the fancy new animation capabilities coming 
> with xorg improvements.

This was something that was discussed briefly on the Nautilus list back 
in May [1]. I'd replied [2] that a right-click on the background of the 
open folder window was roughly equivalent to a right-click on the icon 
representing the folder. (And, as Steven said in a parent message, the 
"File" menu would make sense for the current-folder options.)

Unfortunately, the discussion petered out before it got far enough to 
have a patch or decision com out of it. I still think that it would be a 
much-welcomed refinement of Nautilus's implementation of the spatial 
browser.

As far as drag objects, I've always felt both the Mac (Classic, I don't 
know about OS X) and Windows 95 (yes, really) got it right: The icon in 
their title bars acted as a drag proxy. So, dragging the open folder 
window's title bar icon to the trash would delete folder, dragging it to 
another folder would move or copy it, etc.

The window itself would act as a drag target, of course. The trick is, 
the icon in the title bar isn't really discoverable. But at least it 
would be a start before deciding (or not) to add more widgets.

- John

[1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2004-May/msg00018.html
[2] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2004-May/msg00033.html