GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 82104
Consider removing bookmarks functionality and replace with macos style favorites.
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
first i need to admit my bias that I think nautilus primary purpose is to be a file manager/desktop shell. Based on that statement, having "bookmarks" in a file manager doesn't really make sense since the metaphor doesn't really work. In a web browser you bookmark "pages" sort of like a bookmark in a book, but in a file manager bookmarks can be files, directories, application launcher etc. so the metaphor doesn't work as well.. I propose we remove the bookmarks functionality and associated menu items and replace them with macos style favourites. This would involve creating a vfs folder called favorites: (This use to exist but doesn't seem to work at all well at least for me) We should add an "add to favorites" menu item in the edit menu and perhaps in the filemanager or even the shell context menu. this would add a .desktop launcher to the favorites directory for the selected item. also we should probably add an entry for favorites in the go menu and an icon on the toolbar (either jimmac or tigert has a great heart icon we could use.) This directory would be fully editable by the user, and would allow users to create sub directories etc. The advantages of such an approach is that it uses nautilus's built in functionality to implement a feature as oppose to bookmarks which requires another user interface for editing etc. Also the metaphor of favorites works better in a file manager as these are favorite locations, favorite applications etc.
I concur with removing bookmarks, but dislike the idea of Favorites. To suppose that users pick favorites among applications seems to me to be great hubris on the part of application programmers. A stationary pad system (a la Apple Lisa) or the (afaict) far more powerful templates system of OS/2 and more ease in creating launchers and links far exceeds the usability of Favorites in my estimation. I have the same pro-shell, anti-browser bias and find that the web-browser like functionality is at best a crutch and at worst an impediment. But I wouldn't put a file manager in the same class as a desktop shell - the latter encompases all of the former and is more powerful for most uses.
Greg: Just to let you know, the favorites folder as i envisioned it would be purely user space, applications should not add anything to it (unlike in gnome1). Actually the favorites folder as i envision it, would be an easy to find directory where the user's can easily add links to favorite locations (ftp, webdav etc). Also can you elaborate on your 2 suggestions as well.
Seems like a common bookmarks folder would be a good idea. One way this can be done by treating galeon's XBEL file as a part of the virtual file system - like the contents of a tarball can be opened without unrolling it. (Is that in Nautilus yet?) It would have to be made public instead of hidden in ~/.galeon . The property view should also support editing the bookmark. Moving a URL .desktop file into the folder would have to eliminate the file and add to the XBEL file, just as dragging out would have to create a file. Dragging in anything else should probably be treated as making a link - not destroying or copying the original. I think I filed a RFE against GNOME in general for a templates system - such a thing is of larger scope since, for example, most applications would have to provide templates. I'll look for the report unless someone else finds it before I start. A templates system makes creating launchers much easier. Maybe everything that can be done for links has been done, I only vaguely recall having some difficulty with it; maybe I was just too tired.
Well seems like vfs would be the component to file that bug with. But does it make sense for galeon and nautilus to share "bookmarks" (there is a bug in nautilus requesting that) or are you just suggesting a mechanism???? My personal opinion is that using the existing gnome vfs vfolder method would be very powerful for nautilus, and it already exists so implementation would be rather easy.
hehe. No, I'm not suggesting they share bookmarks. I was thinking that web browsers should share bookmarks and maybe other 'net apps (say evolution) would have a place to store urls from other sources (like email). Seems like begging for some conflict later though. What I was thinking would be interesting for Nautilus would be to open the "Bookmarks folder" like any filesystem directory folder. I've come to regard the filesystem and some of the files as just an implementation detail of the interface - not something the user needs to be concerned about. (How many end-users of databases know what form the physical storage takes?) Since XBEL seems to be catching on in the web browser world (though, I may be misinformed) and it's already galeon's native format, I was thinking an XBEL module for VFS would be appropriate. There are probably some other XML formats that fit naturally to the files-and-folders idea. I'm probably off in the StarTrek future with this. (Who came up with that phrase anyway?) I just wanted to say I agree that bookmarks don't make sense for a desktop shell and then I kept on rambling. If they were removed from Nautilus, that'd be one less menu. Changing from the browser-model to a desktop shell, the Go menu could also be removed. There'd be more menubar space then, so a Selected menu could be added for operations on selected files that aren't appropriate for the Edit menu; File would become Folder and contain only commands for the folder in view. All of this would make the menus shallower and thus easier to use. The scripts funtionality could probably then be made to merge into the menus. I'm rambling again. :-)
ahhh....hmmm...i'm not too familiar with xbel, but you could file a bug with vfs about that i pressume. the global bookmarks idea has been suggested before. However I'm not sure if enough apps use it to warrant having the added code in vfs. I know that the vfolder method is actually quite nice since .desktop files can be used for various purposes, conceivably even for galeon bookmarks. Anyway i could see a bookmarks folder being a subfolder of favorites. Since the user could go into the bookmarks folder and launch the web browser to the location, even though i'm not sure how much this would be used. I guess for the short term i'd just like to implement a favorites vfolder and kind of go from there. (even this is pretty star trek future :) )
Created attachment 8998 [details] icon provided by jimmac for favorites
Created attachment 8999 [details] smaller icon also provided by jimmace