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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: "Documents" path usability issues.
From:       Sébastien_Laoût <slaout () linux62 ! org>
Date:       2005-08-09 22:07:44
Message-ID: 200508100007.45250.slaout () linux62 ! org
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Yes, it is used to store all files, instead of only office documents.
At least it was my own perception of the ~/Documents folder when I first seen 
it, because the home folder is for all user produced files by nature, so why 
do we need to keep it empty and put everything down in another hierarchy 
level!
Remember that all configuration files should go in ~/.* and now that Evolution 
and KMail respect this rule, the home folder is really free for user-produced 
files (except that f*****g ~/tmp folder that should be hidden too).

Yes, this is a result of the misinterpretation of that folder by programmers.

But not only! If only office documents went to ~/Documents, all other 
applications creating images, UML diagrams, web sites... would go to ~.
And instead of filling ~/Documents, ~/Documents would have a few number of 
files and ~/ will be full of every other files.
Return to the start case.

But instead of rename "Documents" to "Files" or even to "Home Bis"... I think 
the solution would be to create folders for every major categories:
* Desktop
* Downloads
* Images
* Musics
* Office
* Sites
* Videos

The Windows way? Yes, but DON'T CRY TOO EARLY! ;)

I think the Windows way of "My *" is sort of good but a bad implementation:
* Because of the "My" prefix
* Because of the fixed nature: every users don't need the same folder-set
* Because of the applications forcing theire own folders.
  Think to Acrobat Reader that will always create a "My Library" folder when
  you start it, even if it's always empty.

First up, there is this "My" prefix everywhere, which make using keyboard 
navigation useless. With the proposed folders above, user only have to open 
the Home folder and press [M] and [Enter] keys to view his music, etc...
Thanksfuly, Microsoft understood that and Windows Vista will not prepend "My" 
to every folder!

Second, the folders-set should not be fix!
We should define the most typical use case of the computer and have a list of 
them in KDE. But do NOT create them on the hard drive!
Each folders should have a different icon. Of course it should be a folder_* 
icon: user need to know it's a folder, only a little overlay emblem would be 
added to it.
When to create them?
That's the bad point of the idea. I don't know when :)

But nowaday programs can ask for the standard "Documents" folder path, right?
We then should extend the API so a new function is created and instead the app 
ask for "What is the user folder for images?", "... for peer-to-peer 
downloaded files?"...
The function return the folder, even if it doesn't exists, the FileSave dialog 
is openned in this folder (but remember the folder doesn't exists on the hard 
drive), if the user save the file in that folder, the folder is first 
created.
That's quite magic... This has to be refined.
Or less dark-magic-virtual-things: the folder can be created before to oen the 
FileSave dialog, with a semi-transparent look (like cutted files in 
Konqueror, but not grayscale transformed), and if the user save the file in 
that folder, that's good. If she don't save the file in that folder, well 
forget it and delete it from the disk.

Or perhapse every folders could exist by default but be hidden as soon as 
there is nothing in theme. And only shown in the save dialog, the "Copy/Move 
to" menu...

Third, of course we can't forsee every possible file types.
Applications should be able to add theire types in a plugin-fashion.
Apolon already do that: it create an ~/Apolon folder with the icon 
"folder_apolon" (so, it's OK with point 2).
That's not perfect: it is using the Windows way: that folder is forced to the 
user, no matter if he would prefer to put the files in his ~/Downloads folder 
or not...
The first time Apolon run, it should ask which folder to use: by default the 
Apolon one, but as it know the meaning of ~/Downloads, it can propose that as 
a second proposition, and ~/ as a third one, etc...

This is also true for Kopete: received files can be very strange (a photo of a 
contact's journey, a draft of the document/HTML page/... she is working 
on...).
Kopete should offer a ~/Received Files folder by default, folowed by ~/Images 
if it's an image, etc...

How? Kopete have a plugin that add the entry:
* id:         receiveds
* Folder:     ~/Received Files
* Folder[fr]: ~/Fichiers reçu
* Icon:       folder_received
* MIMETypes:  */*
to the KStandardFolders API, and also know that by default, KDE comes with 
this:
* id:         images
* Folder:     ~/Images
* Folder[fr]: ~/Images
* Icon:       folder_images
* MIMETypes:  image/*;video/mng
So Kopete have just to do so:
firstChoice  = KStandardFolders("receiveds");
secondChoice = KStandardFolders("images");
...

I searched the "Perfect Hierarchy" over ages.
And now, my home folder contains only folders.
It contains 13 folders:
* Archives: the files I worked before, and now will never work on them again
            but keep them for remembering reason (ie. school/university files)
* Desktop: the desktop, I tend to put a lot of things on it, but because I
           know I will work on them soon, so the access is fast
* Downloads: of course, downloaded programs
* Game Cube: the solutions of the games :-)
* Images: my photos and images
* Music: my music
* Programation: each KDevelop project have a folder inside it
* References: various programming references
* Shorcuts: shortcuts to Windows "My Documents", other data partition or pen
* Sites: This is public_html. I renamed it in a more user friendly way
* Various Files: All things I don't know where to put and that I will perhapse
                 never use again
* Videos: videos!
* tmp: If anyone know how to remove that intrus...

Of course, this is very personal.
Just use case examples AND to show that hierarchy is a very personal thing.
I searhed for years before to find that one.
"My *" on Windows is good because it help users organize themselves with that 
magical hierarchy, but it must be extended.

My mother and sister have gained the reflex to put theire camera photos in "My 
pictures". Everything else in "My documents".
It show one thing two times:
* That's a good thing the "My pictures" was here so they auto-organized theire 
work without computer knowledges.
* Everything else is not organized. It could be if the computer comes with 
other standard folders.

We can find tons of other folders:
* Saved Pages: Saved website HTML pages/archives, or sniffed sites
* Torrents: for people who host a lot of BitTorrent files

I think it should be made easy for everyone to make theire OWN hierarchy.

And perhapse Tenor could remove the need of a hierarchy (even if I wonder how 
programers or webdesigners will do without it for theire big projects).
But at least I can say it's bad to always use the keyboard to search every 
files.
So, having the home folder to be an ENTRY POINT where the user is presented 
such discussed mini-hierarchy (13 folders is a small enouth number, and when 
entering one folder, the choice is already less) is good.
This hierarchy could even be virtual folders in KDE4... or whatever Tenor will 
allow...
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