GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 572160
Compact View vs Compact layout
Last modified: 2018-12-27 18:50:41 UTC
The "compact layout" option for Icon view provides the following translatable messages If true, icons will be laid out tighter by default in new windows. <- gcond long Use tighter layout in new windows <- gconf short Toggle using a tighter layout scheme <- tooltip Compact _Layout <- menu _Use compact layout <- preferences But now Nautilus also provides a "compact view". Could we use another adjective here?
I just ran across this one today as well... hadn't noticed it before, but better we certainly need to remove the terminology overloading. Just to throw some suggestions out there, we could change the name of the three views to: *Icon View *List View *Column View (was Compact View) which seems like a reasonable name, since the 'compact view default's in the Preferences dialog actually includes the setting 'All columns have the same width'. Alternatively, could change the name of the Icon View Defaults preference to something like: * Minimize space between icons, or * Decrease space between icons, or * Tight icon layout Note incidentally that the current preference, "Use compact layout", probably needs rewording anyway, because it's not generally good style to have "Use" (or "Enable" or "Disable") in a checkbox label-- the state of the checkbox should indicate on its own whether something is being used or not.
This is how the view modes match up in Nautilus 2.30.1, Windows 7 Explorer, Mac OS X 10.6 Finder, and Dolphin 1.4. Nautilus Explorer Finder Dolphin ---------------------------------------------------- [1] Extra large icons [1] [1] [1] Large icons [1] [1] Icons Medium icons as Icons Icons [1] Small icons [1] [1] Compact List [2] - List Details as List Details - Tiles - - - - as Columns Columns - - as Cover Flow - [1] Achieved with "Icons"/"as Icons" plus separate icon size option. [2] Achieved with small icon size plus separate "Label position: Right" option. Both Finder and Dolphin use "Columns" to mean something different from what Nautilus uses "Compact" for, so switching Nautilus's "Compact" view to "Columns" may make not make it any clearer. Explorer uses "List" for what Nautilus uses "Compact" for, but that's not a helpful name -- it is, if anything, less list-y than Explorer's "Details" view. I see two approaches to lessening this problem, not mutually exclusive. 1. Change the "Use compact layout" checkbox into a pair of radio buttons, to help answer the "Compared to what?" question. 2. Change the "Compact" view to a sub-option of the "Icons" view, labels below vs. beside icons.
Vish has just pointed out to me that Nautilus already has a "Text beside icons" checkbox (another "as opposed to what?" misuse of a checkbox). It seems that there are only two differences between (a) "Compact" view and (b) "Icon" view at 50% with "Text beside icons": the former scrolls horizontally rather than vertically for no apparent reason, and the latter is hideous because doesn't allocate nearly enough width to the filename. If Nautilus fixed both of those it could, I think, follow Finder and Dolphin in not having "Compact" as a distinct primary view mode. (I'm not on a minimization bender here: I'd rather there were much more interesting view modes available, e.g. "Album" or "Slide Show".)B
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