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

[Björn Balazs]

Am Sonntag, 15. Januar 2006 14:38 schrieb Janne Ojaniemi:
> On Saturday 14 January 2006 19:53, Chris wrote:
> > 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.
>
> It's merely a question of implementation and design. I have thousands of
> songs as well, and I don't really see any reason why they couldn't be
> navigated in C-menu just fine. I mean, I can navigate those songs in Amarok
> just fine, why couldn't I navigate them in C-menu as well?

Just a short comment on this: It is all about filters. You can handle 10000s 
of pieces of content, when you have possibilies to narrow them down quickly 
(amarok allows you to find a certain song real quick, even if you have 
10000).

One was to do this (and as implemented at the moment), is to force the user to 
maintain a strict and hierarchical file-system. But then the retrievment 
works just the same: you have to know where a piece of content is stored in 
the filesystem. But this hierarchical structure is not good for the 
retrievement. When you have 10000s of peaces of conent you will have to be a 
computer to actually "know" where every bit of content is. 

We need some sort of indexing of the content and an easy interface to say: I 
want to see the picture, taken in August 2003, showing my friend Tom - or 
there has to be a text-Doxument I sent to Mr. Whodoiknow, concerning the bill 
for my new mouse and so on...  When showing the results we have to provide 
contextual information (e.g. stored in that and that folder) - so users can 
additionally scan the amount of results.

And, yes, Janne, we have to differentiate between user-content and the 
file-structure of you system as used by any admin. The Tools for these guys 
are already well designed, because they were able to design tools they need 
by themselfs. Users were not and they do totally different things then an 
admin...

Cheers,
Björn