"special" places in Nautilus (original) (raw)

When I first saw the new nautilus search from Alexander Larsson I thought it was excellent. I even posted a comment on his blog (http://blogs.gnome.org/view/alexl/2005/12/07/0) to show approval and support. It would seem that many people agree as there is much encouragement and congratulation in the many comments.

However I was not entirely comfortable with the interface, and I have now come to think that maybe this is not the right direction to head for. The burn location worries me similarly (you can skip the CD burner part if you like). I thought it might be best if I shared my forebodings to see what people think, so here we go.

We could say that searches and the CD burner are not real “locations”, as far as Nautilus is concerned. This seems to give rise to certain problems, as the functionalities related to these objects differ from those of normal locations in Nautilus.

First off, problems with the CD burner :

  * What use are notes and emblems in the CD Burner ? (they do not
    get written to the disk)
    
  * You can't move, or cut and paste files to the disk. (if you try,
    it does some weird stuff (= bug?))
    
  * When you leave the CD burner, it does not ask you if you want to
    save or not. A user could be confused after putting files on a
    disk, quitting the CD burner, and coming back at a later date to
    find files already in the CD burner. (If it did ask you to save
    or discard, that would be weird for a nautilus window.)
    
  * When you delete a file from nautilus that has been added to the
    CD burner, what should happen ? For the moment it deletes the
    file from the CD burner also (but only after you press the
    “write to CD button” (= bug?), or reload ; and this doesn't
    always work). This can create confusion : the CD burner looks
    just like any nautilus folder, and the files seem to be “in” it.
    I could very well see a user “putting” something into the CD
    burner, then erasing it in nautilus, I mean they had just put it
    in the CD burner after all. As it stands, the user could press
    the burn button, label his CD, empty the trash and not notice
    anything was wrong until trying to read the CD some time later. 
    
  * The CD burner is not in the tree. When you open the CD burner
    with the tree side pane showing in the browser, the tree still
    shows the last location (not the CD burner). Very confusing.
    Should we put the burner in the tree ? Where should it be put in
    that case ? Should you copy files to the CD recorder drive in
    the computer, as in certain other operating systems ? If so,
    what if there is an audio CD in there, could you still drop
    items to it and expect them to be queued ?
    
  * When in a sub folder of the CD burner, I think a user could
    confuse the burn directory and real directory. After all they
    have the same name, contents and window ; even the title bar
    shows the name of the folder rather than “CD/DVD creator”. The
    only indication that this is in fat the CD burner is the path. I
    think perhaps casual users generally rely more on the name and
    contents of a folder for identification than on the system path.
    
  * You can open files from the CD burner, but few applications
    recognize the protocol. For example, when you try to create a
    link to a file in the CD burner by drag and drop (why you would
    want to do that I do not know, but the menu choice is there),
    you get an “unsupported operation” error.
    
  * When you delete a file from the CD burner, it does not go to
    trash like any other icon you could delete would (the command is
    “move to trash” (= bug?)). Example : the user deletes a file
    from the CD burner. Then realizing that he in fact wanted that
    file on his CD, would he not fire up the trash, only to wonder
    where the file actually went, making him fell a bit lost ? I
    know that my first reaction would be to open the trash, rather
    than navigating to the location where the file I removed from
    the CD burner is.
    
  * Should hidden files not *always* be shown in the CD burner,
    regardless of the nautilus preference ? 
    
  * What would running an executable from here do : what would the
    path be ? (I don't think many shells support the burn:///
    protocol)

Problems with search :

  * You cannot paste a file into a search, or rather what logic
    would this serve ? Usually, when you cannot paste or move a file
    in nautilus, it is because the place is read only, or you do not
    have permission, not because it represents something other than
    a location.
    
  * When you click on search in a browser window, you loose the
    utility of the cookie crumb navigator. (you get lost :-o )
    
  * When you click search in a spatial window, it actually opens the
    search in another window. Could this window not simply be a
    “search application window” rather than a Nautilus window ?
    
  * Perhaps a list view would be the preferred default way to view a
    search results (irrelevant of the default nautilus setting), not
    only to view the path (and additional information for
    identifying files) but also to provide quick sorting (sorting is
    kind of like a second search).
    
  * When you start a search with the tree view in the side pane,
    what should be shown as the current location in the tree view ?
    
  * Subfolders in a saved search appear “inside” the saved search,
    however when you open a subfolder you get sent to the actual
    path of the folder. It would therefore seem that presenting
    search results like a folder could be the wrong metaphor.
    
  * A user may want to add an emblem to a file in a saved search,
    but not to the actual file, or the other way around...
    
  * When you change search parameters of a saved search, does it
    automatically save them, or ask for confirmation ? Both ways I
    can see this as problematic, as you generally do not save things
    in Nautilus.
    
  * A saved search shows subfolders “inside” the search (in exactly
    the same way as files are “inside” folders), however when you
    click on these subfolders you are actually redirected to the
    real folder. Say I searched for files modified today ; as a
    user, considering a “virtual folder” type metaphor, I would
    assume to find only files modified today in the saved search
    subfolders.
    
  * Seeing as files appear to be “inside” a saved search, could the
    user not think the files have been copied there ?

Actions applied to the contents of these special places differ substantially from those applied to other objects in nautilus, such as folders or network places, thus problems arise from trying to imitate normal Nautilus behavior. So many inconsistencies make me wonder if it is wise to integrate such functions as search or a CD burner into the file manager. The new search seems very impressive, but what are the real advantages of having this in Nautilus rather than separate ? To me it would seem much clearer if the CD burner was completely separate from the file manager, and if search was performed in a separate window.

The need for “not normal” folders, that gave rise to the “blue background” for me goes to show that this just should not be here. If the we must differentiate “special” nautilus browser windows, why not just put them in another window, or a separate application ? One consensus could be that a particular application window serves a particular purpose ; Nautilus is a navigator, not a burner or a search tool etc. You wouldn't add a CD burner to evolution, even though it can save files, Nautilus would be adapted for browsing CVS or SVN though (as it is for FTP...).

Search as it is works without confusing anybody, although it lacks some much needed functionality. I think one of the main things currently missing (pre 2.13) is a button in nautilus that opens the search dialog ready to search in the current path, and saved searches ; plus of course backends, beagle... The main thing I am getting at here is that I do not think integrating search into Nautilus (represented similar to folders) is at all a step in the right direction, I think it will do more to confuse users than it does benefit them with the new functionality. I think the exact same functionality can be provided without integrating search into the file manager part of Nautilus, with an interface similar to the current implementation, added search buttons, a few modifications and addition of new capabilities.

I do hope I don't seem too harsh, the new search is very impressive, and contains many very neat ideas, so much so that I feel rather bad about criticizing it. I was rather hesitant about posting this, as I don't want to seem to be bashing other peoples hard work, but I am rather worried that we may be trading simplicity for snazziness here. It would seem to me that most people accept the new implementation as an improvement, but please give it a little thought.

I hope these comments will be found useful by some, hopefully for ideas to help make the GNOME interface both more simple and more functional.

Love, Karderio

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