On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:37:29 +0100 Allan Day wrote: > Next up: tree sidebar and split view.
[...] > Some criticisms have been levelled at split pane in the past. I don't > really want to revisit those now. I have read statements about split pane in the past that can hardly be called "criticism" in any constructive or reasonable way. I haven't read much real criticism yet. In fact, I didn't see any negative comments from outside of your group at all, yet. On the other hand, I got quite some positive feedback from users; and the press coverage that I've seen after 2.30 was also very positive. > I think there are probably better > ways to integrate this feature into the UI though - Garrett's got > some good ideas there. I'm curious to see those. Even more since Garrett didn't seem to understand what split pane is all about in the first place. > Windows Explorer and Finder have a single sidebar, no tabs and > no panes, and there are good reasons why they don't. Many other default file managers for many years don't have anything closely remote to GIO/GVFS either. There are good reasons why they don't. Virtual filesystems for remote places are a pretty obvious complication for the mental model - but they're also incredibly useful. I can only guess why I haven't heard much about removing GVFS for simplicity reasons: Because in contrast to split pane, by coincidence, you guys use GVFS yourselves. That's the danger when having a small group of 2, 3 or 4 individuals sitting together and thinking about what all the rest of the world needs, or worse, what it doesn't need: The view is inherently skewed. But, as you're starting the comparison with MS or Apple products: Windows and Mac don't have many things that GNOME has. That powers a huge software industry. When you're done with Nautilus, are you going to simplify GEdit down to what Windows' notepad.exe can do, next? > The basic aim of the future nautilus proposal is simplification. I thought the fundamental design goal was to enable to user to do their file management tasks easily and efficiently, and simplification was hoped to be a tool to reach that goal. I would definitively have agreed to that, up to a certain extent. But ... > Simplicity is a virtue in all kinds of ways. ... obviously I was wrong, and simplicity is the goal in its own right. And to that, I do not agree. > Paring down the UI is good for users (since it gives them less to > process), No. I can tell you what's good for users: If the application helps them to get their work done. They don't open Nautilus to enjoy its look. Nautilus is a file manager, and people open it when they want to manage their files. And anyways: Split pane has very, very little impact on the default UI. It's a single, tiny menu item. Holger -- nautilus-list mailing list nautilus-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/nautilus-list