The Spatial Way
Posted May 19, 2004 14:54 UTC (Wed) by
haraldt (guest, #961)
Parent article:
The Spatial Way
Have used the spatial file manager of OS/2, and it does have some positive sides to it.
This means, for example, the ability to leave file manager windows open on the desktop like a menu, listing documents of a specific project. No file tree showing, no desktop clutter.
Really handy when opening a document means starting an application. You can make it work in the 2.4 nautilus too, but not as easy.
Another fine thing, it's much easier to copy or move files from one window to another than cut/copy/paste, and this is both faster and easier in spatial mode.
But, a file manager is for managing tasks. Most users have a lot of different tasks to do.
Personally, this means I have to use deep directory structures to keep any order to it at all. Three to five levels before getting to the guts of it, that spares me having to clean up all the time.
When opening a lot of subdirecties in spatial mode, you end up with desktop clutter. Way too much, and it's a bother to close them all.
Also, all that "Middle+double-click a folder" stuff is confuzzling. What I need is a "shift+left click" to open a window in spatial mode, and I need to set some browser icons to open right up in spatial mode. That's it.
This leads us to the topic being discussed again. Quantity does not replace quality, and perhaps it's a good idea to focus on quality first. But we also need lots more discussion on how we really need a desktop to work, not just lock people to limited concepts.
Look at the commercial success of the Mac desktop versus the MSwindows desktop. Most users like to be able to fiddle with some controls, to imagine themselves as advanced computer users. It may not be the most rational way for beginners, but still it happened that way and it happens that way. It's the way things go forward.
What about at least being able to set the controls not just to "beginner", but also to "intermediate" and "advanced". At one central place, for each user. And give organisations a chance to lock the users away from the more advanced levels, if efficiency and ease of use is most important.
That would please a lot of users, and most of all, developers, testers, people using the Linux desktop now. It'd be a bad idea to lose them.
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