Friendlier and smarter file browser possible?
Bhushit Joshipura
useful file browser and smarter file browser that detects cyclic
operations.
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Just go and open the File menu of your favorite application and see
“New”, “Open”, “Save”, “Save as” (and “Move to” in case of a mail
client) section.
Usually it throws you to a default location that the programmer of the
application software thought was fit. [For example, my MS Word forces
default on me in “My Documents”. Now, that is pure absurdity. None in
her/his right mind will keep any data in C:/ drive – much less in “My
Documents”. What useless default location!]
Whatever innovation the Windowing system does in its file browser, is
the ONLY innovation we have seen so far. [For example, a very careful
observer might have noticed Windows 7 File Browser has imported
“History” and “Favorites” concepts from Internet Browsers - and left
out a way to declare "Favorite". It requires a Ph.D. in Human Computer
Interfacing to figure it out.]
Why can’t multiple location list pop up in file browser each with one
of the following? The user can then select it through a radio button –
and drop down lists, if at all needed?
History of THIS application for this user
History of ALL applications for this user
Favorites of THIS application for this user
Favorites of ALL applications for this user
What locations other applications are using for this session
(“Environmentally aware”) for this user
Default
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Yet another wish I had for these options is automatic detection of a
cycle of activities.
For example, I am required to review (edit and save) 20 people’s
performance based on Balanced Business Scorecards in a folder called
2010. Then I need to copy over (open, save as) in 2011 directory and
edit them again – in a loop.
Can't a computer learn such a cycle and pop up the most probable
destination of files?
<edited from http://bhushit.wordpress.com>
Lew Pitcher
> Two wishes here from a new operating system user interface - more
> useful file browser and smarter file browser that detects cyclic
> operations.
Typically, in an X window system, the application or application
framework takes responsibility for the contents and organization of
the "Save" menu. Since, unlike the MSWindows examples you quote, the
typical operating environment of an X client and server doesn't
dictate a set location (and often explicitly recognizes the variety of
suitable file locations), you don't have the same problems with
"default file location" in X applications as you do with MSWindows
applications.
If you would like to initiate a change to how your "FILE SAVE" menus
work, you'll have to address several different areas. Some X apps
handle the "FILE SAVE" (and similar) functions entirely on their own,
without any dependence on environmental settings; some X apps use a
specific low-level toolkit (such as Xt) to provide a more consistant
menuing function, while others use specific high-level toolkits (like
QT or GTK+) to handle all the heavy lifting. Depending on /which/
toolkit, each app will have it's own challenges to support your
proposed "variety of save choices", and each will have to be addressed
separately. Your best bet is to concentrate on recommendations to the
one or two environments that you use, and let the desktop standards
people distribute the requirements to the other environments.
Speaking of which, your question talks specifically about Microsoft
Windows operations and specific Microsoft Windows environments, and
doesn't mention anything specific to the subject of this newsgroup (X
Windows). Did you mean to post here, or did you mistake this group for
one that deals with Microsoft Windows?