Re: Patches improving tree view (multi-root and auto-follow)

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Sun, 2003-06-08 at 16:07, Jürg Billeter wrote:

> There were many discussions about improving the tree view to handle
> multiple roots. I want to have something like this in nautilus 2.4, so
> I've implemented a possible version.
> See http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=62524

Ok, lets have a look at this.

This time I didn't really look at the patch. We need to first discuss
how we want it to look and work.

This implementation uses a tab on the left of the tree, while the
previous patch[1] someone worked on used multiple root elements. These
have various pros and cons:

tabs on left
pros: 
* You only see the dirs from the specific root, avoiding confusion.
* Its easier to locate another root. You don't have to scroll around   
looking for it.
cons:
* Wastes more space horizontally.
* Two levels of tabs can be confusing. Also makes keynav more
complicated.
* The tab can only have an icon, not any descriptive text, that wouldn't
fit.

Multiple roots in tree
pros: 
* The roots can have descriptive names + icons
* Doesn't waste more space than needed.
* No nested tabs
cons:
* Finding the root you want can be painful.
* You can see files from several roots at the same time, possibly
confusing the user.

There is also a third way that seems to have most of the pros above.
Make each root a separate sidebar tab, and use the normal sidebar tab
selector to pick the one you want. I.E. you'd have both the normal tree
and a "Homedir" entry in the sidebar menu.

I think this third way would work pretty well for nautilus.

Furthermore, I think we need some more features:

* The toplevel node need to have a better name. For the root directory
its now "/", and for the homedir its the directory name. They should be
things like: "Toplevel Folder", "Home Folder", "Network Neighbourhood".

* A way to add (and remove) custom treeview roots. One way would be by
just DnDing a directory to the menu, but we also need to have an
accessible/discoverable way in the menus.

The smb tree doesn't work well because it has desktop files instead of
subdirs. We probably want something like: 

diff -u -p -r1.76 nautilus-tree-model.c
--- nautilus-tree-model.c       2 Apr 2003 11:50:51 -0000       1.76
+++ nautilus-tree-model.c       11 Jun 2003 12:53:23 -0000
@@ -740,7 +740,8 @@ should_show_file (NautilusTreeModel *mod
 
        if (should
            && model->details->show_only_directories
-           &&! nautilus_file_is_directory (file)) {
+           &&! nautilus_file_is_directory (file)
+           &&! nautilus_file_is_nautilus_link (file)) {
                should = FALSE;
        }
 
To make it work better.

Opinions?


[1] http://www.dialog-online.at/pichler/screenshot.png

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a genetically engineered hunchbacked assassin on the hunt for the last 
specimen of a great and near-mythical creature. She's a radical motormouth 
mechanic living homeless in New York's sewers. They fight crime!