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Re: spatial finder
From: |
Sascha Erni, .rb |
Subject: |
Re: spatial finder |
Date: |
Wed, 16 Jun 2004 15:13:05 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.6 (X11/20040612) |
Hi there,
I do realise Rogelio was speaking of the Finder (i.e. search
application) and not the File Viewer (i.e. file browser), but I'm in a
talkative mood, and the way this discussion has been going irked me on
somewhat. So please forgive my ranting. ;)
Enrico Sersale wrote:
> On 2004-06-16 05:44:34 +0300 Rogelio Serrano <rogelio@smsglobal.net>
wrote:
>
>> Can we use the new gworkspace finder in spatial mode?
>
>
>
> What's that???
"Spatical mode" is usually used to describe file browsing behaviour. In
short, file windows don't auto-sort when you open them but remember
where you put each icon in prior sessions. Windows also remember their
sizes, what view you had selected (large icons, small icons, list), and
their positions on the desktop. Say you open the Applications directory
with Ctrl+Doubleclick, a new window will open exactly where it was last
time before you closed it, with all the icons arranged the way they
were, without a "new" sorting taking place. So if you feel like putting
all your text applications to the left, media applications to the
top-right corner, and utilities to the bottom, that's the way the
Application directory will look like until you move the applications again.
I do understand the importance of spatial information to develop "muscle
memory," that you'll find stuff quicker even in real-life if you
remember where you put it (obviously), but that's a problem, too: I have
thousands of text documents, hundreds of images and PDF files. When I
keep more than a dozen real-life magazines, I more or less automatically
start piling them up, and am glad if I had the presence of mind to bring
some order in the piling. Spatial mode is handy for containers--say,
your documents directories are on one part of your desktop, application
directories somewhere else, drive icons in-between--but with files? I'd
have a mess in no time. I spent a lot of my early Mac time searching for
documents because I lack the self-control to keep things tidy. That's
what the computer's here for, in my opinion. And that's why I personally
prefer a file browser which makes "browsing" as easy as possible.
One of the reasons I switched to GNUstep on my Linux box was
GWorkspace's use of Miller Columns. I don't think I ever employed icon
view for more than a screenshot or two. I even planned on spending $30
to get a Miller Columns file browser for Windows, but its development
was stopped due to copyright reasons (I'm told) and it won't work
properly on WinXP. For me, Miller Columns in combination with a content
Inspector are the most logical way to browse in deeply-nested directory
trees, but I guess that's simply a personal preference. On the other
hand side, I can't understand how anybody would want 30 opened windows
on their desktops just because they were looking for one file.
Most Windows users I know use the "Details" view combined with a
directory tree to the left when file-browsing in Explorer. Reason being,
everything's ordered either by name, file type, size, or change date,
and you have a real chance of finding that three-months old document
you're looking for. They then switch directories in the file tree, with
the details view updating--sort of two-tier Miller Column browsing with
a tree structure for directory switching. They use a "spatial" icon view
only on the desktop, where they tend to put important documents in close
reach of the drive icons and expect to find those documents next time
they boot up. As a short-cut, so to say. I wouldn't mind that for my
Linux desktop either, but that's what I have the Shelf for.
I was very, very pleased when I fired up OS-X on my iMac for the first
time and was greeted by a Miller Columns browser, I have to say. I was
less pleased by its inconsistencies. That's where I agree with the Ars
Technica article linked to earlier in this thread--it's confusing if the
view and positioning changes all the time. Also, Apple did sort of a
hack-job with their column view by missing the importence of the shelf
(or an easily user-adjustible location bar).
The most us mere users can hope for is that the devs will include many
options of how you'd like things to behave. There's not much point in
argueing about what's "better" or even "the right way to do it." *looks
at this posting, shakes head, continues* Personal preferences as well as
academic points of view are too diverse to settle for one, be-all
end-all solution. Naturally, developers should stick to their idea of
what was intended and prevent users from getting used to bad design and
bad habits (Windows's Task Bar comes to mind), but ultimately? It's the
users' choice what they want to work with, and how they want to work
with it. So, in the end, I wouldn't mind GWorkspace becoming a bit more
"spatial aware" than it is right now, but should it go down that road,
it should try to do a better job at it than OS-X does at the moment.
93,
-Sascha.rb
P.S. oh, and I second Rogelio's vote for "search expressions icons."
That would be nifty indeed. -.rb
--
Sascha "nggalai" Erni, .rb
www.3dcenter.org
www.dudagroup.com
www.nggalai.com
- Re: spatial finder, (continued)
- Re: spatial finder, Enrico Sersale, 2004/06/16
- Re: spatial finder, Björn Giesler, 2004/06/16
- Re: spatial finder, Rogelio Serrano, 2004/06/16
- Re: spatial finder, Pete French, 2004/06/16
- Re: spatial finder, Larry Coleman, 2004/06/16
- Re: spatial finder, Dennis Leeuw, 2004/06/16
- Re: spatial finder, Enrico Sersale, 2004/06/16
Re: spatial finder, Rogelio Serrano, 2004/06/16
Re: spatial finder,
Sascha Erni, .rb <=
Re: spatial finder, Nicolas Roard, 2004/06/16
Re: spatial finder, Nicolas Roard, 2004/06/16
Re: spatial finder, Nicolas Roard, 2004/06/16
Re: spatial finder, Frederico Muñoz, 2004/06/16