Re: nautilus's browser mode future

[Ryan McDougall <ryan mcdougall telusplanet net>]

On Thu, 2004-04-01 at 00:37 -0500, Curtis Hovey wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-03-31 at 23:39, John McCutchan wrote:
> 
> > I know this is going to be controversial, but I think that the browser
> > mode of nautilus should be removed completely in the 2.8 cycle. Spatial
> > is great and with some extra work it will be perfect. 
> 
> I believe that will happen to the extent that Nautilus 2.8 will only
> have views for directories/files.  Single file/page views are for
> specialized applications.
> 

Ah the old Nautilus views debate: View are very useful under the right
conditions: 

1. View modules are provided by the app, not Nautilus. That way Nautilus
doesn't become a "swiss army knife" code wise.
2. Views are all read-only. This clearly defines the bounds between
Nautilus and the application; nautilus is for managing files (including
limited viewing of files), apps are for manipulating files.
3. Views have the proper metaphor which is distinct from normal file
management. This clearly defines the bounds between launching a file and
viewing a file.

A long time ago I proposed we add an "Inspection Mode", indicated by the
mouse changing from arrow to magnifying glass, which when used on a file
would show a pop-up window that includes the Nautilus view. The metaphor
would be that we wish to peek at what is inside the file in a limited
fashion, and by using a magnifying glass the zoom mode meshes well with
a spatial mode of thinking. Its also consistent with read-only property,
since magnifying glasses can't modify the thing it views.

Cheers,
Ryan