I think it's better if we keep the folder-to-window association.
Having said this, your design can be made more usable if the tabs are changed to location bar similar to the one found in the new GTK+ filechooser widget.
Have a look at XFCE's upcoming file manager thunar for some inspirations: http://thunar.xfce.org/wiki/ui:gtkfilechooser-like
Michael Favia wrote:
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Yuan Qi wrote:
Ubuntu Bugzilla Entry: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=9125
Nautilus spatial is a very user friendly way to navigate files, however, it creates window clutter for users who use deep folder trees. I think a discussion needs to be made on how to improve the spatial mode, especially when we start considering all the controversies created by https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=8516
Problem: Extra spatial window flotsam that occurs on your way to /foo/bar/baz (namely "foo" and "bar").
Solutions: 1. Shift navigate. Automatically closes parents as you descend. Less than optimum to make users hold hotkeys to perform the arguably most desired functionality. 2. Close all parent folders. Automatically closes all folders above your destination. (retroactively fixes a problem that need not exist) 3. Implement tabbed browsing. (Description below)
Description: A folder is opened and it gets a new spatial window. When users drive down into sub folders the position and size of the window will remain the same and the new spatial folders will show themselves as tabs in the original window (with custom emblems and backgrounds intact). The position and size of the window is remembered for the topmost folder (leftmost tab). At any juncture the user can open a folder in a new tab or undock a tab and create a new window (by rt clicking or dragging). This gives the user the control over what constitutes a "new navigational task".
This also means that when users place launchers/symlinks for folders on their desktops they will correctly position themselves from the last time they used that folder.
It works just like people use mozilla/firefox windows to separate tasks (check mail, read news) and use tabs to expand on particular areas of a task (read news, load a couple of the articles).
This means that there is less "random window position and size" and that the spatial metaphor stays intact but uses "navigational entry points" instead of all folders as the basis from which to derive the size and position aspects of the spatial metaphor. The structured nature of a hard drive makes this a great way to increase the efficiency of file navigation and the popularity of tabbed browsing means that we dont have to reexplain the wheel to the user base. Any comments?
- -- Michael Favia [EMAIL PROTECTED] Insites Incorporated http://michael.insitesinc.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32)
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