Hi,
I would like us to discuss a bit what we want to have in the desktop...
Personally, here's what I want:
1 - a fast filemanager that lets me browse using different modes:
- columns
- list
- icons
- spatial mode (spatial icons + annotations + drawings ...)
else, rather similar to GWorkspace -- I want a shelf and a "path
view". Although the shelf
should be disablable, and the "path view" should have a "big size"
(like in GW) or a
small size" (like on Jesse's mockup 01). When I mean "spatial
mode" I mean it at the
directory level -- I don't want it at the window level. And I want
an obvious and easy way
to change the current visualization mode and a textfield to filter
the content (ie, not a
search box, but a "filter" box).
2 - I want "well" icons -- ie icons where I can dnd things on it.
Obviously it will be the filemanager's job. The idea is to have a
simple way of handling this case (eg, when something is dnd on an
icon, if it's a "well icon" the file manager will launch the
associated application with the file and the dnd content in
parameters). That will handles cases like "I have this contact icon, I
want to send a file to this contact, I just dnd the file on the
contact icon", or "I want to print this, I dnd it to the printer
icon", etc.
3 - For the file manager, I want inspectors -- but not inspectors in
the file manager (or well, not only). What I want, is to have external
applications (document "viewers") behaving as inspector. For example,
if I want to inspect images, currently in GW I can use the image
inspector -- but it can't be resized. That's bad. What I'd like to
have is to have ImageViewer (for example) launched as an inspector,
and the content of the imageviewer window replaced when I select
another file (eg, like an inspector !). That would be imho more
convenient than having inspectors directly managed by the file
manager...
4 - a tabbed panel/shelf like
http://www.roard.com/screenshots/screenshot_gnustep.png (but probably
looking like http://www.roard.com/screenshots/Dock6.png)
- you can put anything on the shelf, not just applications
- you can use the tabs to organize your applications and your work
- do we want special icons like OPENSTEP panel ? eg to see which
apps are running
and which documents are open ? or should we just have that in
"special" tabs ?
- question : how do we handles iconified windows / non-docked
apps ? the "special"
icons in OPENSTEP panel or the "special" tabs containing
running apps/ opened
documents could be an answer
For a future 0.1 release of étoilé, I think we would need:
1- a file manager
2- a panel
3- a login panel
4- a session manager (which starts everything and possibly restaure the state)
5- a text editor and an image viewer
6- an help application
7- a preferences application
Note that I didn't mention anything about a Desktop, because I'm not
such a fan of using the desktop. But we could have a Desktop.app
application that will handles it, accept dnd things on it (basically
act like a big shelf), plus some neat additions. In fact it would be
like the "spatial mode" I described for the file manager, but on the
desktop (eg, you'd be able to add annotation too, etc). The goal would
be to transform the "desktop" as a real workplace, not just something
to put shortcuts icons...
For my "0.1 release list", #5 and #6, #7 are "done" -- we can reuse
existing software (Ink/TextEdit/HelpViewer/Preferences ...) even if
for some of them we could want to provides something different
(Preferences.app ..)
Thoughts ?
--
Nicolas Roard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-Arthur C. Clarke
