[Thunar-dev] Spatial or not-spatial?

[Jasper Huijsmans]

Benedikt Meurer wrote:
> Ok, now on with the UI related parts...
> 
>>> Hoever, Benny definately has got a good formula (needs maybe one or 
>>> two things to make it really usable, but the concept is good) with 
>>> the mockup he presented us. It reminds me strongly of the gtk 
>>> file-chooser, and that is IMO a good thing (as I also stated in the 
>>> talk).
>>
>>
>> I agree. Like I said during the discussion, it is exactly how I use 
>> Rox currently. Alexander's comment was that it a navigational 
>> interface needs a way to tell the user where they are. So, a location 
>> bar (not nice),  a tree (doesn't really fit the design) [...]
> 
> 
> Sorry if I missed a point, but which design do you mean here?
> 

The navigational one. Important for me is that there is only one window. 
I know where my files are, so I just go there. If I want to move/copy it 
somewhere else I open a new window and drag things over. This is most 
likely not the way most users work.

>> or perhaps something like the path buttons in the gtk file chooser.
> 
> 
> The GtkFileChooser attempt is quite nice for a file open dialog. I 
> wonder if it would work for a file manager as well.
> 

I have know idea. But the point about missing information about the 
location, in navigational mode, is a good one.

>>> perhaps this is a good time to iterate that the file manager itself 
>>> should only be -one- gui. There will be many in the future if we do 
>>> things right, like the desktop (being the secondmost important GUI to 
>>> the file manager), and possibly even the start menu in the far 
>>> future. The real file manager should perhaps even be a non-gui 
>>> application or library (although a process will undoubtably be a 
>>> better design for the sake of IPC).
>>>
>>> Personally, my opinion doesn't matter. Neiter does the *personal* 
>>> opinion of any developer. It's all about our target audience... and 
>>> this is where all of us have to admit that we're in the dark. Benny's 
>>> best guess is a navigational file manager, one that closely resembles 
>>> other parts of xfce's gui already (gtk file chooser), and thus will 
>>> most likely be a good choice.
>>
>>
>> Fully agreed. I was really wondering what made benny change his mind. 
>> I see advantages to spatial, especially implementation-wise, but I 
>> also from the start have felt that our users may not appreciate the 
>> restriction it imposes...
> 
> 
> Well, as said, personally I'd prefer the spatial view, but as Auke said, 
> its not about our personal opinion...
> 

Hehe, you start to sound just as undecided as the rest of us. Like I 
said, I see advantages to both, but i really don't know which one to 
choose.