[Nautilus-List] Constructive Criticism Revisited

[James Mitchell Allmond <gte203h prism gatech edu>]

	Sebastian's nautilus UI mockup
http://bbsliste.de/nautilus/nautilus-view-bigdev.jpg
is what I had in mind for a compromise between the "Places" icons on the
toolbar and the pure tree view as a sidebar. Sebastian's mockup
obviously needs to be polished and maybe even changed quite a bit but
the general idea of the above UI has the basic idea. Pure tree views of
the whole filesystem are confusing to new users, it's messy for any
user, and a pain in the ass in general. 

	On the other hand, I see no reason why both can't be done. It seems
perfectly reasonable to have the sidebar method and the "Places" method
on the toolbar. The two could be toggled in the preferences. The two
could also be dynamical in the manner that the "Places" icons are shown
on the toolbar when the sidebar window is closed and aren't when it's
not closed. If the former is done, the question would be to ask which UI
should be the default. In light of everyone's comments, it seems the
sidebar UI would be the default but I believe we would need more user
input before deciding. The Nautilus file manager is too important and
critical to the gnome project to have it's future UI decided on so
loosely. 

	While I've brought up sidebars, I'd like to comment on the sidebar
options. Maybe it's just me but I think the use of the sidebar has been
stretched way beyond appropriate boundaries. It seems inappropriate to
have things like "Help", "News", and "Notes" in the sidebar. It's a bit
unprofessional looking really. If you need news, read a paper, watch tv,
or go to a news website with a browser. If you need to take notes, use
evolution or do it the old fashion way with paper. If you need help,
access help the standard way you access help in gnome applications.
Having help in the general nautilus sidebar is inconsistent. Another
issue concerns the default display of the sidebar. From what I can tell,
it seems if our above UI is adopted, the tree/icon view will need to be
the default. Also, the standard view of the sidebar with no option
selected serves no purpose other than to show what folder the user is
currently in. That purpose will need to be served through some other
means or merged with each separate sidebar view.