[Panel-devel] The ALI: do we really need or want it?

[Chris]

Janne Ojaniemi wrote:

>But I don't really see any reason why we should limit ourselves to only a portion 
>of the files.
>  
>
If you think it would be possible to show an entire /home directory in a 
single context menu that is easy to navigate I would love to see a 
design.    However I have over 9000 music files alone and that would 
require a lot of visual space on the desktop.  As well, with many 
expanding menus, if you make one wrong move you could collapse two or 
three layers.  I just think it would be difficult to design and/or hard 
to navigate.

>The Content-menu I proposed would not contain all files in the SYSTEM. It 
>would contain the files in the users home-directory.
>
What about root?  He needs access to those files?  And if you don't 
include them in the C-menu then you /will/ need a file browser.  As well 
sometimes users need access to these directories.

>Of course, if the user has a music-folder and/or video-folder (for example) that is not in his 
>home-directory, but elsewhere (so other users could access it as well), the 
>C-menu could display that.
>
Why dictate to the user where he can put his files and where he can not 
put them?  Isn't it about user choice?  I really don't think we need a 
system wide My Music or My Pictures.

>Some might worry about the scalability of the menu. Bit I think that with 
>proper categorisation, the problem could be resolved.
>  
>
So far there have been several mock ups posted.  Of these I haven't seen 
one that would be suitable to displaying ALL of the files in my /home 
directory.  The one posted from OpenUsability.org takes up the entire 
screen and might as well be a file browser (albeit one with an 
interesting new twist on the whole category).  Several of the mock ups 
from the blogs look like they would be great for displaying limited 
information.  You talk of a proper categorization.  I would therefor 
like to see either your candidate for "best display of proper 
categorization" or your own personal mock up.  Preferably not in a list 
of categories (which is easy to make but hard to visualize on the 
desktop) but in an actual mock up.  I would very much like to see it, as 
this does sound like an interesting idea if it can be implemented correctly.

Chris Wailes