Re: [Usability]A Challenge: Describe the GNOME 4.0 interface.



Dave, what's crazy is that I had like the same idea... kinda...

Forget applications... put everything within Nautilus... make everything
embeddable... you use the Nautilus file manager to navigate your tree
(somehow as much as database held file solutions may seem cool, I
imagine you'll have to pry my file tree out of my cold dead hands) and
then open a document with a specified view/editor... that component is
then embedded within that Nautilus window... so Abiword, for example,
becomes a view within Nautilus... Nautilus itself only has a single menu
for navigational purposes...and Abiword merges its menu items into the
Nautilus menu bar... and below the Navigation toolbar Abiword registers
a view specific toolbar...

And since Galeon4 is also a view, it also integrates seamlessly into
Nautilus...

The panel still exists, but only for non-document centric tasks...
monitors, gAIM, clock, things of this nature...

The desktop acts more like a physical desktop in that the vFolder (yeah,
GNOME 4 will have these with the file tree) or folder being used as the
desktop (v)Folder is changable... it contains icons for the documents in
the folder representing the task I'm currently working on...

Furthermore, since GNOME 4 is fully integrated with web services using
the .GNET platform (created from the acquisition of Microsoft by
Ximian), various monitors keep up with the changing plethora of
information on the net... imagine GNOME 4 informing you when a new
Slashdot or GnomeDesktop.org headline appears... or when updated
packages are available off of Red Carpet... or when the Honorable
Senator Richard Stallman (EFF Party - MA) has a new public statement
about how the government is spending the billions of your tax dollars
saved from abandoning Microsoft products...

Finally, gnome-vfs4 seamlessly unites itself with all aspects of the
user-interface... since the merger of gAIM with GnomeMeeting, you can
click on links within an Evolution contact or within a webpage to begin
a webcam enabled chat with somebody else, regardless of the IM protocol
being used... ICQ (since the implosion of AOL/TW, Mirabilis bought ICQ
back), H.323, Jabber, you name it... gnome-terminal runs a gnash, a
gnome-enabled shell that allows you to enter commands like "cp
some_document.abw sftp://joshg my gnet org/Documents"...

Aah, the future looks nice...

-jag

On Fri, 2002-11-08 at 06:26, Dave Bordoley wrote:
>  Well last nite I had this crazy idea that everything would be a nautilus
>  view (this is purely at theoretical level since I'm not sure if nautilus
>  is robust to support this right now or if this is even a good idea). At
>  the shell level the only common window element is the menu bar. Common
>  to all views is the view as menu, which lets users switch how they are
>  viewing an object. All other menu items, toolbars, statusbars etc. are
>  view/object dependent dependent. For most views you would have a root
>  view (similar to nautilus' FM-directory-view) that provides the basic
>  menu structure, toolbars etc. Other views could build upon this view to
>  provide other functionality. 
>  
>  This is just one idea of an implementation (and probably wrong one but
>  thats ok).
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------
Joshua Adam Ginsberg	       Cellphone: 713.478.1769
Rice University '02	       Email: joshg myrealbox com
St. Mark's School of Texas '98
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