[Thunar-dev] Spatial or not-spatial?

[Patrick Yavitz]

Benedikt Meurer wrote:

> After some talk on IRC with some of you, I have been thinking about 
> the possibility to use a spatial user interface for Thunar.
>
> My initial intention was to use a browser-like user interface for 
> Thunar, basicly because I always thought the browser-like UI would be 
> somewhat easier and more intuitive. But it turned that this myth was 
> solely based on my ignorance, and not any real experience. So, in the 
> end, I realized for myself, that it wasn't the file manager that 
> caused trouble, but it was my mind that caused the problem.
>
> And thats exactly the problem. Fixing software is easy, but fixing 
> peoples minds is a hard job (probably impossible).
>
> So, what do you think:
>
> (a) Better for Xfce to ship an old-school file manager to make 
> existing users happy.
> (b) Better have a simple file manager to attract new users, but 
> probably frustrate existing users.
>
> I collected some thoughts already:
> http://thunar.xfce.org/wiki/ui:spatial
>
> The spatial prototype is available from CVS, if you don't have CVS, a 
> recent snapshot is available from 
> http://www.xfce.org/~benny/trials/thunar-spatial-20050221-2.tar.gz 
> (IconView is only available with latest libexo-0.3 from SubVersion 
> repository).
>
> Jasper suggested to do a poll and ask existing Xfce users.
>
> Opinions?
>
> greets,
> Benedikt
>
Personally I would like to see a more Rox Style Interface. Where is 
looks and feels like spatial, but doesn't walk or talk like it. If you 
know what i mean...

But i think most users would prefer it to be optional. Check This [X] To 
open in same window. If the option isn't selected then it would be a 
normal spatial browser...

Of course this is just my preference :)

~Patrick