XFCE design SIG: Thunar: Several design ideas

[Harald Judt]

Am 02.06.2011 08:27, schrieb jp.guillemin:
> On 06/02/2011 05:00 AM, Mike Massonnet wrote:
>> %!grep Nautilus
>> 16
>>
>> I believe what we are not doing is the Nautilus. If you like Nautilus,
>> use it, don't ask Thunar to mimic it :)
>
> A very smart answer Mike !
>
> Congratulations
>
> JP
>
>> PS: sorry, I didn't read through your email, just saying.

However, one should still look at certain points mentioned here:

>>> 5) I think it looks nicer to name and rename files and folders
>>> in the file manager window, rather than opening a pop-up to do
>>> this.

Renaming in the pop-up dialog in its current status has the following 
advantages / disadvantages:
+ you can see the old filename in the main window while typing the new name
+ you won't accidentally start the renaming (I've observed many people 
do and curse about it)
- the dialog window is too small and inconvenient for longer filenames
- it's an ugly pop-up, in-place renaming looks more elegant (but that's 
a matter of taste)
Possible solutions:
* Make the dialog window larger / scale appropriately
* Rename in-place and show old filename in status bar while renaming. 
However, in-place renaming might suffer from the same size issues as the 
dialog window.

Enter the bulk renamer:
There is no way to invoke the bulk renamer for single files. Why is this 
bad? Why would one want to do that? Imagine you just renamed a lot of 
files, then want to perform the same operation on a single file you 
forgot or on a lot of single files in different folders. It's impossible 
right now, isn't it?
Solution: Provide override key, like <Shift>-<F2>, or shift-clicking on 
the context menu entry, as with the delete function (bypass trash).

I've filed an enhancement request (bug 7684) for this, see
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7684

>>> 4) One feature Nautilus2 didn't have that I would like is a
>>> "separate" thumbnail view.

Please.... don't ;-)

>>> 9) Occasionally, having pasted files/folders automatically selected
>>> after pasting is useful.

https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7328

>>> 10) The option to create a symlink to the selected
>>> file(s)/directory(s) (with an absolute path) in Nautilus'
>>> right-click menu is used often by me.

I believe you can already do this by dragging the file holding <Ctrl> 
and <Shift>, and you could create a similar menu entry by creating a 
custom action.

Harald

-- 
`Experience is the best teacher.'