I feel ambiguous about your "self" proposal.
I think the idea is good. I've used the desktop as your "shelf"
countless times (in Windows. With gnome I open a terminal and launch mc
:) )
However, it breaks the object metaphor. What it does, more precisely, is
to add aliasing to your desktop. Aliasing is conceptually harder by a
level of magnitude, and I think GNOME is heading the opposite way.
It's hard for a mind used to the object model to think that an operation
on a visible object actually changes also something that is hidden. And
i think a lot of complications arise... how do I remove something from
the shelf? Do I press delete or move it to the trash? won't that delete
the real file instead? That's just an example, I think that lots of
similar situations will appear.
I'm not saying that the idea should be dropped. I think it perhaps can
be adapted to the object model and be very useful; it just must be
designed carefully and matching the other concepts already present inn
the desktop.
D.
--
Must it be assumed that because we are engineers beauty is not our concern,
and that while we make our constructions robust and durable we do not also
strive to make them elegant?
Is it not true that the genuine conditions of strength always comply
with the secret conditions of harmony?
-- Gustave Eiffel, 1887
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