Re: Spatial nautilus - fantastic - but what about the rest?

["John (J5) Palmieri" <johnp martianrock com>]

On Thu, 2004-05-13 at 07:20, Martin Ebourne wrote:
> Thanks for breaking the mold and doing something because it's worthwhile, and
> not just the same as everyone else. The new spatial nautilus is much better
> for managing files and is a significant step forward. Gnome just seems to
> keep on getting better.
> 
> However, the spatial nautilus leaves a gaping hole: file management is now
> more intuitive up until the point you want to start editing files. Then it's
> 'File open', 'File save', and straight back into the old browser
> model. I can understand why so many people are complaining about the spatial
> nautilus - we've now got two different file management concepts on the
> desktop, and they don't mix well at all.
> 
> I don't know if Gnome already has something funky planned to improve this for
> a future release, but I've not come across any such discussion. If not then
> I'd be interested in getting involved.
> 
> There are three main areas where the user still ends up in a browser window
> browsing the filesystem to find what they want. Loading files, inserting
> files (eg. in a word processor), and saving files. Loading files is not a
> big issue - you can already double-click in a nautilus window (or
> right-click and edit) to load and edit the file, so using the browser to
> open files is essentially optional. Inserting files can be solved but isn't
> a common operation, so I think the first thing to address is saving files.
> 
> Currently the only way to save a file to a new location is through the 'Save
> as' browser. The good thing about going spatial with this is that it not
> only fits in with nautilus better but also dramatically simplifies the user
> interface. All we need to do is replace all of the browser furniture with a
> single icon; to save the file the user just drags the icon to where they want
> it. This completely models nautilus where when you drag a file from one
> window to another it moves/copies it.
> 
> I've mocked up a couple of save windows for an imaginary text editor, just as
> an example. This one is the most basic save - the application only saves
> files of one type. All you need to enter is the leaf name of the file, and
> then drag the icon to where you want to place the file.
> 
> http://www.ebourne.me.uk/bits/gnome/saveas.png
> 
> This one has an extra option whereby you can control the type of the file
> saved:
> 
> http://www.ebourne.me.uk/bits/gnome/saveas-type.png
> 
> For a given task people tend to work in a particular directory and it is so
> much easier and faster to drag the file to the probably already open
> nautilus window than keep browsing to the same directory in each application
> you want to save in.
> 
> Comments on this would be appreciated, and if people like it then I guess
> discussing implementation is next. And just for the record, this concept
> has been implemented before with a spatial browser and it really does work.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Martin.

Currently the browse mode for saving seems fine in the respect that one
usually wants to save to the same directories most of the time.  What
would be a better solution to make you happy while keeping the browse
mode (which actually isn't browsing unless you open the browse tree) is
to always have the file type icon and allow it to be dragged into a
nautilus window.  Right now drag and drop just works for opening files.

--
J5