mirror of
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus
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125 lines
5 KiB
Text
125 lines
5 KiB
Text
1. A definite improvement over the previous version I saw.
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2. Contains some interesting ideas:
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Features:
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> Multiple content views
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> Display of an XML file as a frame floating in the content view
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> Customizability
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I like the ability to drag colors from the color selector to a window.
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> Interface
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. Much attention paid to producing a user-friendly result here.
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. "Everything Windows explorer is and more"
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. Simplicity of available operations
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. Providing as much useful information as possible from a given screen, without
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overloading the user (e.g. thumbnails).
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. I like the (debated) user levels, but wish their differences were known.
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Design:
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Implementation:
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> Code is survivably good - not wonderful, but not procmail
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> Using XML allows easy integration of web data sources, etc.
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3. Has some drawbacks:
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Features:
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> Interface
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. Value of the panel is questionable
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. Double-click vs. single click needs explanation/exploration
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. More information on what the new user
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. The "file operations" area of the interface is not explored very well and
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is very vague.
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Design:
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> Is basically a collection of intertwined widgets, rather than
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a data-oriented class hierarchy.
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> No abstraction of common patterns
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> Extensibility virtually non-existent
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> Generally poor.
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Example - instead of instantiating the a certain class with a well-known
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interface when a particular view is requested, MultiView is used
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with a number of set_*_view() functions that are hardcoded to display
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certain views.
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Example - The iconview has special cases for the vault in its metadata-reading code.
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Example - There is only one application-level class that is ever derived from (IconView),
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out of the thirty or fourty such classes present.
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Implementation:
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> Performance is poor (possibly due to use of AA canvas)
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"It has to be faster if you are going to get people to use this"
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> Uses Gtk--
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. In constant flux
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. Relatively high resource demands
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> Somewhat buggy
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> Using XML - may not always be appropriate, has performance implications in the
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current usage situations, what about gnome_metadata.
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> Doesn't use gnome-vfs
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4. Misc suggestions
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"One thing I like in windows is how you can select a file, and it views it on the side as
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a preview (for picture files and html files)". (Easy to implement.)
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5. Nautilus scenarios
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irc://irc.gnome.org/#gnome
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Shows xchat as the content view, and a list of 'Recently Displayed URLs' as a
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meta view.
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ghelp:
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Displays the help intro page as the content view, and the table of contents,
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help search, and help index as meta views.
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file://localhost/
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Displays icon list of files as content view, and directory tree and file
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properties as meta views.
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http://www.gnome.org/
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Displays the web page as the content view, and web search and what's related
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as meta views.
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mailto:sopwith@gnome.org
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Displays mail composer as content view, and address book as meta view.
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6. My conclusions
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gnomad is very focused on the user interface, and looks promising for producing a good
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user experience.
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The patterns that pieces of gnomad fit would allow for easy integration into Nautilus.
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I recommend that that an assessment be made of features still needed from Nautilus, and
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that we turn the various views of Gnomad into Bonobo controls for use in Nautilus.
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Appendix A: What Nautilus is
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The generic pattern of content view/meta views/available operations occurs in a wide
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variety of situations. The Windows web-browser interface uses the basics of this, but
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does not exploit it to its full potential.
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Nautilus is a data shell that uses Bonobo components to present the best possible user
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interface for a given piece of data. When navigation to a particular URL is requested by
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a view (either the main content view or one of the meta views), Nautilus determines what
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content view and meta views should be displayed, based on the requested URL, the
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referring URL, the content type of the requested URL, and application configuration.
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This allows a standard yet appropriate interface to be provided for an infinite variety
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of data types.
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http://people.redhat.com/sopwith/h3.gif contains a screenshot of the help browser
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prototype that produced the idea for Nautilus. This window follows the content
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view+meta views pattern that Nautilus supports.
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Based on analysis of gnomad, features that Nautilus design still needs:
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More thorough examination of what data-related elements the user interface
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should incorporate (especially in the areas of toolbars/menus).
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Ways of displaying meta views besides as tabs in a notebook.
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Multiple content views.
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Passing RDF-like tree from content to meta views, instead of just the URL.
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Other features that I had been planning to add:
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Ability for displayed views to modify menus/toolbars
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(just need to make use of GnomeUIHandler, I think).
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Finish implementation of the whole URL -> set of views code.
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Finish implementation period. :)
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Appendix B: Bugs
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Remove semicolon from end of music_view.cpp:115 (still doesn't work, oh well).
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