[Thunar-dev] Interface thoughts

[Benedikt Meurer]

Erik Harrison wrote:
> Yeah, I know everyone has an opinion, but here is mine anyway.
> 
> I'd like to point out that I'm looking for a file manager, and haven't
> found a good one yet, so I'm looking for something I can _use_. My
> usage patterns are much like Jasper's. I'm specializing in Interaction
> Design and Human Computer Interaction, and my final paper for
> graduation here is going to be file managers.

So you're about to become a Human Interface Designer? If so, why didn't 
you told us earlier? :-)

> First off, I just wonder if anyone has taken a look at or had the
> opportunity to use the NeXT file manager? If you've used the OS X
> Finder, then you've used it's wimpy brother. You can see some
> screenshots and explication here:
> 
> http://www120.pair.com/mccarthy/nextstep/intro.htmld/Workspace.html

Thank you very much for not complaining about spatial within the first 3 
paragraphs, that was very bracing to read. ;-)

And thanks for throwing in the nextstep idea (Francois came up with that 
earlier, but somehow it got lost).

I've seen that in Aqua Finder already (tho as you said, the new Finder 
is a wimpy toy, where the apple people could not decide about what they 
want), but somehow I failed to see the usefulness in the Browser view 
(which is what the nextstep file manager is popular for). On the other 
side I never tried to use/get used to it, so cannot comment on it (yet).

For those who haven't used the nextstep file manager: There's an OSS 
clone called FSViewer (tho, very unstable).

> It's not perfect, and it's UI isn't quite consistent with other apps
> in the GTK+ world, but it's well thought out and powerful.
> Particularly the way it displays the current path. This simultaneously
> acts like a back/forward/up/history like system, while also providing
> an easy way to do stuff that some file managers make hard, like doing
> drag and drop with the current directory. Double clicking on a folder
> in that "history bar" takes you to that folder, but preserves the
> history, until you decend into a different folder, much like a
> browser. This is not only the most powerful history tool I've used in
> a file manager, it is also probably the easiest to learn.

I think, especially the history is very consistent with the new 
GtkFileChooser UI.

> I'd also like to point out that spatial and navigational models are
> not incompatible in the same file manager.

I think the best example here is ROX, which tries to combine both 
worlds, and fails (yeah, I know, it works for geeks, but that wasn't the 
point here).

> Spatial is very easy to
> learn and to do basic tasks with. It also (Like Brian and Steve Jobs
> pointed out) makes the user the janitor. The most recent version of OS
> X puts both models in the Finder, and then makes the moronic mistake
> of making the navigational mode default.

I dunno what to say about Aqua Finder afterall. While I can use it 
(which doesn't tell anything), I don't think Apple did a good job with 
that hybrid. They should either fully adopt the old Next FM or stay with 
the Classic Finder UI. Just my 0.02€ tho...

> If you have a "New Window on open" option, and the ability to disable
> all the toolbars, then you can make a spatial file manager without
> sacrificing users like Jasper, Brian and me. Just make those the
> default

Sounds like ROX to me.

Benedikt