[Thunar-dev] Some GUI Suggestions.

[Jeff Franks]

Benny,

Here are some mock up images that show you my idea of a clean, simple 
and well laid out file manager. I posted these recently to xfce-dev as a 
suggestion for the next version of xffm.

http://xfc.xfce.org/tmp/xfce4-fm-menubar.png
http://xfc.xfce.org/tmp/xfce4-fm-no-menubar1.png
http://xfc.xfce.org/tmp/xfce4-fm-no-menubar2.png

The design is based on the way I like to use a file manager and uses 
just an icon view, no tree view or side bar. It has a menu bar, toolbar 
and statusbar. The second and third images show you how space saving and 
convenient it would be, to be able to optionally display the menubar as 
a popup menu from the toolbar. Users expect to be able to access all 
application functionality from the menubar so the new file manager 
should have a proper menubar. Users also expect to be able to access 
commonly used functions from a toolbar so the new file manager should 
also have a toolbar. Personally, I don't like file treeviews because I 
find then cumbersome, but side bars can be useful. And there is always 
konqueror or nautilus for those occassions a user might need to use a 
file tree.

Spatial vs Non-Spatial. I've thought a lot about this and followed the 
pros and cons on several news sites. Spatial file management is not the 
"new" concept the thunar web site suggests. Not only did previous Mac 
OS's use the concept in there finder but beta versions of Windows 95 
used it as well. Have a look at this Microsoft study report from back 
then. The relevent subsections are "Early Findings" and "A Change of 
Direction":

http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Sullivan/kds_txt.htm

Essentially the report says that there was a Program folder on the 
Windows 95 desktop, like My Computer. Folders in the Program folder were 
opened in separate windows. Apparently beta users were confused by all 
the separate windows opened on the desktop, and not knowing whether the 
file icons in the folder referred to a link, or the real disk file. So 
the program folder became a Programs menu item on the start menu.

Both navigational and spatial file management have their pros and cons, 
and I think there must be a near 40:60, 50:50 or 60:40 user preference 
split. So how do you keep the majority of users happy? One way would be 
to make "spatiality" a property of the folder, not the entire file 
manager. Spatial file windows could be used for special folders, such as 
My Music, My Device, My Pictures, My Downloads etc. Users could 
optionally create a spatial folder knowing that its location and size 
will always be the same. Usually you shouldn't need to navigate from a 
spatial window but if you did, you should be able to, but any changes 
made wouldn't be saved. Spatial folders would especially be suitable for 
use in the panel, on the desktop, or from the Xfce menu. The Xfce4 
settings dialog would make a good spatial folder.

Well, those are a few of my ideas.
Jeff.