unity-design team mailing list archive

[anthropornis <anthropornis@xxxxxxxxx>]

In Nautilus Elementary I had 3 buttons to switch views (icon, list, 
compact). It was on the same row as the location (text or breadcrumb) 
and was not cluttered for me at all.

Cluttered is A) in the eye of the beholder B) dependent on screen 
resolution and C) typically something one can toggle on and off.

But what you suggest is actually interesting -- a customizable tool bar, 
just like in LibreOffice, Firefox, and other mainstream applications. Oh 
my, I could potentially have 20 different buttons I could add to my own 
toolbar, or just select a subset of, e.g., 3 of those, to put on my 
personalized tool bar. That almost sounds .... like something that has 
been around for years.

I understand that you do not see a problem with the current "solution." 
That is typically how problems begin, one user thinks his way should be 
the way for everyone, and just excuse this penchant by throwing out that 
old bromide "oh, you can't please everyone". That is true, but it's one 
thing to actually try, and another to just say "do it my way". This is 
why I don't consistently follow this mailing list, because there is no 
shortage of that type of thinking present here. Other users? What other 
users?

The thing is, if people other than yourself have things they can toggle 
on/off, or re-arrange, at will, it does not even have to affect you, or 
your own views on clutter. We can ~all~ be closer to happy that way. 
User interface precedents do exist in this area. I never understand why 
that is so offensive to some people.

In any event, hopefully the jump to GTK3 was the last major breakage and 
features will return or be added, in one file manager or another.

PS for the time being I am using GPRename instead of Purrr, but thanks 
for the suggestion (that reply didn't make it to the list).



On 11/01/2011 11:34 PM, Chow Loong Jin wrote:
> On 02/11/2011 11:14, anthropornis wrote:
> > Or I could click one button one time. That is the essence of simplicity.
> You could say that for every commonly used feature there is.
>
> I don't frequently change views, for example, but I frequently change between
> showing hidden files and not. I also create new folders much more frequently
> than I switch views, and the same can be said about changing the arrangement of
> items.
>
> By your logic, we would have three new buttons for each view, a toggle "Show
> hidden files" button, perhaps a menu for changing the sorting order of items and
> a create new folder button in the toolbar, or elsewhere not in the menu.
>
> The result would be a beautifully cluttered interface. You can't have
> everything, and you can't fully please everyone.
>
> Incidentally, all of the mentioned actions, except changing sorting order, have
> keyboard shortcuts for them, which are clearly indicated beside their entries in
> the menu. I really don't see a problem with the current solution.