Re: volumes mark 2

["Luca Cappelletti" <mutek verticalmindsystem com>]

Hi!

Il Fri, 19 Sep 2003 17:35:00 +0200, Paolo Borelli ha scritto:

> What about instead creating these folders in the homedir and put by
> default .desktop files (or symlinks?) on the desktop?
> 
> What I mean is:
> 
> ~/Desktop
> 
> and
> 
> ~/Documents
> ~/Images
> etc

Why?

I think that ~/ is the place where the user live.
We are thinking about Gnome that have the power to manage and expose or
not .desktop files into the file selector.

Home is the desktop where real /Documents /Pictures and so on live.
No /Desktop is strictly necessary because power users understand the
meaning of a .desktop file into a terminal session, instead my mother that
has no computer skill use only the gnome interface that hide and filter
all the rest.

Who is your real target?

Whe have to protect newbie users and not unixers.
Where is the problem to have a ~/ fully of folders and .desktop files??
Actually you have a bounce of hided .* files into ~/ and terminals or nautilus
hides for you...so we have to hack bash to say it:"hey...I'm a Unix
sheller...don't let me see all that .desktop files because I don't like
it!!!"...(What mean "don't like it" regarding usability?...absolutly
nothing,it's just something very personal...Gnome is desktop for
everyone...this mean that my mother and my father with absolutely no
computers skill should understand how to compute their actions using a
fully OO approach with the minimum cognition attrition).
Introducing /Desktop we don't use the Unix under your finger..but we
rebuild another virtual layer.
Home is there...use it.Abuse it...is just there waiting for you objects
anarchy.

> 
> * still preserving the unix concept of homedir (not-gnome apps and the
> shell would simply see ~/documents etc)
> 

Preserve the newbies and not yourself (and me).


> * not exposing to the user the fact that Desktop is directory;

I agree

> this is
> IMHO quite important, since users think of the desktop as a special
> place not as a root for a hierachy. 

Wich is the basis of your assertion?
Who are your "...users..."??

"My" users don't think at Desktop as a special directory...my users "don't
think at all".
My users live into the desktop and the objects.
I think you are preserving the power user navigational model and this is
not good for the rest of the peoples.
You are speaking about "...hierarchy..."...but in a OO world hierarchy
tends to become flat.
So again: home is my desktop

ciao

Luca Cappelletti