[Usability] Interacting with open folders, part 2.

[Maurizio Colucci <seguso forever tin it>]

<old stuff>

Some time ago we were discussing whether Gnome should allow interacting with 
open folders. What does it mean? In real life, if I see an open box of 
chocolates on my table, I can still act upon it: I can move it into a drawer, 
on in another box, or throw it in the trashcan. The fact that it's open does 
not limit my actions in any way.

OTOH, in gnome, if I see an open nautilus window/folder on my desktop, I 
cannot act on it. I can only act on its *content*. If I want to act on the 
folder itself, I must go to the parent folder.

What we need IMO is

1. Introduce a way to act on the open folder itself. Mind you: not only to 
drag it, but also to copy it, move it, delete it, create a link to it, etc. 
Simply adding a drag handle is not enough.

2. do it in a way that does not lead to menu item duplication (e.g. one menu 
for the folder and one for the contents).

Then I pointed out that the cleanest and simplest way to fulfill the 
requirements is to add a way to *select the open folder itself*. Then, the 
"edit menu" could continue to work unmodified.

For example, a button which, once pressed, selects the folder itself. Then 
you keep using the existing menu.

</old stuff>

<new stuff>

I went on a bit with my reasoning.

So we should be able to select the folder itself. But in spatial nautilus 
this means selecting the window! (since folders and windows are strongly 
indentified)

So, what we really need is a button to select the open window.

Where should this button be? Logically, it should be in the window's title bar.

But then, we have the problem that the edit menu is located inside the window 
frame. To a user, it would not be intuitive what the scope of the menu is. A 
menu cannot act on something that is outside of it.

So the new proposal is: move the nautilus menu, (at least the "File" and 
"edit" items) OUTSIDE the nautilus window. So the user can select the window 
and/or its contents, and then use any kind of action without any logical 
problems.

</new stuff>

Any comments?

Maurizio