[Thunar-dev] user interface ideas

[Danny Milosavljevic]

Hi,

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:06:04 +0200, DINH =?utf-8?Q?Vi=C3=AAt_Ho=C3=A0?=
wrote:

> Hello !
> 
>   I am just starting to use xfce (after having used ctwm for years)  
> and it looks that this is a nice user interface for Desktop use.
> Things remains simple and this is less buggy than gnome things  
> themselves.
> Note that I am also a user of Mac OS X.
> 
> Especially, through XFCE, I am using thunar, the file manager of XFCE.  
> This is nice but I have some user interface ideas to improve it :
> 1 - That would be nice if there was a search text field just next to  
> the Pathbar,
> so that we can filter the current directory content. The directory  
> content view would show filenames that contains what was entered in  
> the search (that has to be displayed as the user type in the text  
> entry).

I don't see how that would be something I'd ever use. 
Just click into the list view pane and type the name, tadaaa it gets
selected. 
Press cursor down: the next match gets selected.

Filtering a folder always seems like a good idea for five seconds but
after that, it's just weird/evil to have a folder hide things. 

If you don't need some files in the folder, move them to a folder of their
own.

> 2 - Sorting of filenames could be also improved if they were sorted  
> non-case sensitively.

it does that here O_o

> 3 - The side pane give the choice for 2 styles : Shortcuts or Tree
> I think we could have a comprise getting advantage of two: you could  
> make them both appear by rooting the tree at the path selected in the  
> shortcuts pane.

No. 

a) Fix your folder structure so that you don't need the shortcuts, or
b) Add all folders you'll ever need as shortcuts

No mixing of _completely_ unrelated stuff (namespace wise) in one view
please.

It might seem that I just disapprove of anything you say on a whim, but
believe me, I created/used file manager prototypes for almost a year and
one _does_ find out what things are nice and what things are evil that 
way :)

cheers,
  Danny