-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160 Günther Noack wrote: > Hi! > > Am 14.04.2007 um 04:12 schrieb Yen-Ju Chen: >> They scatter on the desktop for a while until we decide where to >> put it. >> This kind objects usually are recognized by our visual at a >> particular place >> of the desktop. If they are organized automatically, the chance >> to find >> it is small. > > There's a possible solution to the desktop cluttering problem: Don't > make the desktop a directory. > > The open source file manager ROX stores the desktop's contents in a > configuration file. Everything on the desktop is a link to a file. > When opening or dragging the objects on the desktop, the original > file location is used. This way, the user can't save things to the > desktop and is forced to find a better place. > > Here's the URL to that file manager. > http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/static.html > > If I remember correctly, this way of storing the desktop contents was > copied from RISC OS, but I'm not sure about that. > > I strongly believe that forcing people to organise their files in a > proper way is a huge step into the right direction. It would of > course be better if the computer did that for us, but there are way > too many cases where a machine can't do that automatically. (This is > not necessarily just an AI problem - we also lack the resources to > write adapters for every file type.) > > > I don't agree with the "Inbox" idea. Of course having an "Inbox" > directory is better than just loading it all on the desktop, but the > contents of the Inbox directory will nevertheless have to be sorted > by the user at one point or another. It doesn't free you from the > work of organising your files. What makes it a bad solution is that > it encourages you to postpone all the file ordering. > > -Günther
I strongly disagree with this approach. My impression is that people mentally view the desktop as the _desk_top_, i.e. the place where they put things which aren't filed into some other more permanent folder. I like to keep things on my desktop which I work with frequently, I don't just want links to them. If I wanted a link, I would have explicitly told the computer so. Similarly, in real life, when I use a document frequently, I leave it on my desk. I don't just put a stickie telling me that I can find the original in the third drawer from the top. Also, I think this collides with the idea we have agreed on at FOSDEM 2006, that everything in Etoile should work using the direct manipulation principle - when I drag a file around the computer it means that I'm really dragging it, not just some placeholder. When I put it in the trash, it's in the trash, when I put it on my desktop, it's on my desktop, when I put it on the shelf, it's on the shelf. If I wanted a link to the file, I would have held down the Control key to tell the computer that I want it to _create_a_link_ to the file. Again, dragging a link object is just that - I'm manipulating the link, not the original file. This can be made easily apparent using a little arrow symbol with which the original file's icon can be badged. Making the desktop, one of the most frequently used parts of a work environment, an exception to this principle is basically like kicking the entire principle apart. - -- Saso -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGINTKakxhuWWzY78RA2KAAKCNKaJLRGPxElzhXjK58D3dw8OOJgCcD6VZ rzUSgoABWvdQe/BjHkXPpdw= =SEhM -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Etoile-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/etoile-discuss
