[Wylug-discuss] KDE

[RichardA]

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 10:54:43 +0000, Dave Fisher
<wylug-discuss at davefisher.co.uk> wrote:> On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at
11:38:02PM +0000, RichardA wrote:> > On Tue, 3 Jan 2006 13:08:27 +0000
(GMT), John Hodrien> > <johnh at comp.leeds.ac.uk> wrote:
> > > The zoominess sounds not unpleasant, but I've found konqueror
> > > seems
> > > really dated compared to nautlius which is very clean (once you've
> > > turned off bloody spatial mode).
> > 
> > Why does everyone hate spatial mode? 
> 
> > It's slower than a folder tree for
> > complicated operations or deeply nested folders, but ...
> 
> I think that you just answered that yourself.
> 
> I doubt if I'm alone in having filesystem hierarchies that have
> accumulated a great deal of cruft and complexity over the years, i.e.
> using a very small number of undivided data folders is not the normal
> case for me, and I doubt that it is for many long term unix users.
> 
> As often as not, the complexity in my filesystems  is the product of
> earlier simplification and tidying efforts, e.g. sud-dividing
> directories to reduce the size of the individual informational spaces
> I need to manage.

As I said to John, that would be true for me too, except for the fact
that I live in ~/tmp; like families who have a pristine front parlour
ready for when someone important comes to visit, but spend the other
364 days a year crammed into the kitchen!

> Personally, I'm inclined to suspect that the Gnome usability team's
> findings on this topic were artifacts of the test methodology, e.g.
> testing on clean installs, with users who hadn't yet had time to
> accumulate much cruft. 

That does sound likely.

And here's a confession: I use Gnome Commander, not Nautilus, for the
heavy lifting.

> I suspect that you'd  get similar results by testing on Windows or Mac
> users who have been socialised into using 'My X' folders and search
> with
> application FileOpen dialogues filtering by file extension/type.
> 
> Just about the biggest problem I have as a trainer, is coping with
> Windows users who have no conception at all of filesystem hierarchies
> (hence paths) or of the distinction between applications and data
> files.

At least most Windows software is aware of the 'My X' folders by now.
Some apps used to default to C:\Progra~1\<application name>, which left
users with no clue where their files were, nor any chance of backing
them up.

> For all the hype about database driven filestems, I suspect that
> directory trees will be with us for a while.  In my view people find
> the
> concept of containers and contents (e.g. boxes/drawers and files) that
> bit more concrete than string/regexp matching.

Beagle, Spotlight et al may change that. Why organise anything when
there's a live, multiple-format search facility?