Re: CD Writing Proposal

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de>]

On Tue, Jun 01, 2004 at 11:42:09AM +0200, Alexander Larsson wrote:

> * The placement of nautilus-cd-burner in the application menu. I'd
> really like nautilus-cd-burner to be an integrated part of the system,
> so that writing cds is as natural with the file manager as copying a
> file. This is hard, but totally punting it and calling it an app isn't a
> nice solution. And anyway, if an app in the menu launches a window
> manager window (which hopefully users doesn't think of as an "app") that
> might be confusing.


Having a Place for burning is not one bit closer to a 'natural' feel 
than exposing it in the Applications menu (IMHO).

If a user searches the Applications menu for a cd burning app (what is 
to be expected), it wouldn't be too bad if he finds one.
That doesn't say much about the level of integration. File Roller is in
there, but otherwise feels like a part of general file management.
On the other hand, accessing functionality in an 'inline' way should 
be encouraged, whereby inclusion in Applications menu is rather 
disadvantageous.

CD burning can not be as 'natural' as copying a file. You could only 
get close to it by representing inserted blank mediums on the desktop 
and allowing to drag files/folders onto the icon (or into the associated 
window). A dialog might allow to cancel the operation and offer some 
settings (already more complicated than just coying). But burning would 
have to start right after confirmation.

Because otherwise you need to have an extra layer, that allows to 
create/edit a selection of stuff to be burned. Using a window associated 
to the medium for this would break the whole concept, because showing 
content that will only realy be the content after a special operation 
(burning) happens nowhere else and is not easy to understand.

But the direct drag'n'drop mechanism could work nicely in combination 
with a filetype for selections. Like a folder, but without affecting the 
physical location of referenced files. Idealy it wouldn't need fixed 
paths like with symlinks.

Selection files would make it quite easy (interaction wise) to offer 
a 'split to fit' function: Collect everything you want to burn and 
use a menu option, enter target size: the selection gets split up 
into several that fit on 1 medium each.


---
Thorsten Wilms