Re: Spatial Mode Window Cluttering and Possible Solutions

[Alan <alan ufies org>]

On Mon, Apr 18, 2005 at 10:41:04AM +0300, Kalle Vahlman wrote:
> On 4/18/05, Yuan Qi <gmanenews 3 maxchee spamgourmet com> wrote:
> > Nautilus spatial is a very user friendly way to navigate files, however, it
> > creates window clutter for users who use deep folder trees.
> 
> I am still wondering how much the "window clutter" really troubles
> people, from an efficiency point of view. I do know that lots of
> people complain that they get lost in folders if there is many of them
> on the screen, but I bet most of them manage to work with other apps
> opening multiple windows (or, who can truly claim that he has only one
> browser window open at any time?).

The big difference is that with multiple browser windows (or other app
windows) is that you're actively using them.  The confusion that comes
with nautilus spatial browsers is that you end up with a lot of open
windows created from the trail to get to where you want to go.  If I am
going to /home/alan/foo/bar/baz/qux I want just qux open, but currently
(without dbl-middle-click, shift double click, or other not-easily
discoverable tricks) you end up with foo, bar, baz, and qux open.  

A side effect of this that I've noticed is that because of this some of
the usefulness of the spatial desktop is lost.  For example, using the
above example, it's possible that I have used foo bar baz and qux
folders before, and have their positions and settings set to my liking
(which of course is the beauty of the spatial desktop).  However, now I
have qux open and want to close foo bar and baz.  What I find myself
doing a lot is moving the opened folder so I can get to the parent
folder to close it.  So I open foo, then open bar, then move bar away so
I can hit the close button on foo, then open baz, move baz to get bar
and close it (of course this saves the new position), and so on.  In the
end my windows end up randomly scattered on the desktop :(  I think (not
at my system now) there's a close all parent folders option, but my (and
I assume others) automatically close the window itself.

My $0.02

alan

-- 
Alan <alan ufies org> - http://arcterex.net
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"Backups are for people who don't pray."                 -- big Mike