Saturday, June 13, 2009

Nautilus Split View Update

I've been working on cleaning up the history of the my Nautilus split view branch, and basing it on the official git repository. That's done now, so consider this post a call for testing! Grab the source and get it running. Please send emails with bug reports, patches, remarks, and also success stories. I'd also be interested in reports from spatial-mode users, just to make sure the patchset doesn't introduce any regressions for them. I'd really like some more testing before requesting a review upstream.


Some visual polishing took place compared to the old screencast, for example the thin border in the theme's selected-color around the active pane, and shadow around the inactive pane.

The buttons with the greyed-out look in the location bar on the right side of the screenshot are in fact sensitive. Clicking e.g. directory buttons changes to the respective directory and also make that pane active. The grey zoom control widgets and the insensitive-looking background work in an analogous way. That's not exactly HIG-compliant, but it seems very natural and intuitive.

Posted by hb at 21:20

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37 comments:

  1. Denis CheremisovJune 14, 2009 at 6:26 PM

    Trying right now, excellent!

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  2. siegieJune 22, 2009 at 9:07 PM

    Thanks for this great addition to nautilus.
    I've compiled it on my ubuntu desktop and it works perfect. (as far as i can see).
    http://siegie.sin.khk.be/Schermafdruk-siegie%20-%20Bestandsbeheer.png
    On the dutch ubuntu they are also very excited about this addition.

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  3. hbJuly 1, 2009 at 1:06 AM

    Thanks for your feedback, guys. As the amount of testing (outside my own day-to-day desktop usage) is important information for me, I'd be interested in knowing to what degree you guys tested (e.g. "checked it for 5 minutes" vs "have been using it every day for weeks now").

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  4. UnknownJuly 24, 2009 at 1:25 PM

    I've install the Jaunty package and I love it, but I don't see the option of Extra Pane in the "view choice" only in the bar.
    In the other hand, I've seen another addition to nautilus, a simplified view in: http://davidsiegel.org/nautilus-simplified/
    A merge of that addition with the split view could be great!
    Sorry for my english, I'm spanish

    Thanks!!!

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  5. hbJuly 24, 2009 at 3:21 PM

    but I don't see the option of Extra Pane in the "view choice" only in the bar.

    Could you rephrase that? What do you mean by "view choice"?

    a simplified view in:

    I don't like the state that was presented in that blog, for the reasons described in comment 29 there.

    We'll see what upstream has to say about that.

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  6. UnknownJuly 24, 2009 at 3:59 PM

    Sorry, I must improve my english... With "view choice" I mean this http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3752399612_a95d3d71f3_b.jpg
    I don't know how to explain that.
    When I saw the screencast in YouTube I thought that the split view was an option of the "view choice".

    Thanks!!

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  7. hbJuly 24, 2009 at 4:23 PM

    When I saw the screencast in YouTube I thought that the split view was an option of the "view choice".

    No, it's not, and it wasn't on the screencast. Each side of the split view can have a separate view, so you can have e.g. list-view on the left side, and compact view on the right side. These two things are orthogonal, really.

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  8. UnknownJuly 24, 2009 at 4:32 PM

    Another thing hb, I've tried to put a shortcut on the nautilus toolbar for the split view, but I only see the words "Extra Pane", no icon. Which is the name for the icon shortcut?

    Thanks a lot!!

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  9. hbJuly 24, 2009 at 4:34 PM

    As of right now, there is no icon.

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  10. UnknownJuly 25, 2009 at 3:29 PM

    Hello again!
    I've been trying the addition and I noticed that when I put the "split view" by pressing the F3 button the two panes appears, but pointed if I press with the pointer on the pane of the right and press the F3, the window returns to the normal view with the pane of the left, never with the right pane although it was noted with the pointer...
    I hope you understand my appreciation, I don't know if thats is a bug or a posible future feature.

    Thanks!!

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  11. hbJuly 26, 2009 at 1:47 AM

    Currently, the "extra pane" action creates an extra pane on the right, and when that action is toggled off again, that extra pane (the one on the right) is destroyed again. Maybe it would make more sense to keep the active pane, and destroy the inactive pane, no matter which one it is.

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  12. UnknownJuly 26, 2009 at 5:28 PM

    Hi again!!
    I've seen that you have implemented the feature that I said!
    Thank you very much!

    ReplyDelete
  13. hbJuly 26, 2009 at 6:51 PM

    Thank you for your comments!

    ReplyDelete
  14. UnknownJuly 29, 2009 at 11:06 PM

    Ok. This is totally cool! I wonder why upstream never thought of this?

    Mark.

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  15. AnonymousSeptember 30, 2009 at 9:56 PM

    I have just installed today, but after the latest kernel update on Ubuntu Jaunty (to 2.68.15), it become unusable, and I had to re-install nautilus from the original repos. However, - your initiatives to have dual panel - seemed very promising for me. Good luck to make compatible with mainstream development.

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  16. hbOctober 1, 2009 at 1:34 AM

    I am using it on a up-to-date Jaunty with Kernel 2.6.8.15 on a daily basis at home and at work without any issues. The code is compatible with mainstream development.

    Of course, as any non-tivial change, it may contain or trigger bugs that are exposed by specific environments. I won't be able to track them down without more information or a way to reproduce, though. You're the first one that reports instabilities, so if you can provide more information, maybe the issue can be solved.

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  17. AnonymousOctober 15, 2009 at 11:09 AM

    It looks nice!

    Would it be possible to do something like this:
    http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/630/fulltabs.png

    In this way it wouldn't be necessary to duplicate the zoom buttons, etc...

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  18. hbOctober 15, 2009 at 11:22 AM

    @Anonymous: Sure it would be possible, but I don't think it makes much sense.

    The two sides may show different locations, so two location bars should be visible. To save space, the view chooser combo box is already moved out of the location bar into the toolbar -- maybe it would make sense to move the zoom widgets there, too. The rest of the location bar, however, should stay.

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  19. AnonymousOctober 15, 2009 at 2:06 PM

    @ hb
    You are right about the location bar.

    +1 for moving the zoom widgets into the toolbar :-)

    I'd also like to suggest a "x" button to close a side (like that on the sidebar or at right of a tab's label).

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  20. Optimize MeNovember 2, 2009 at 2:27 AM

    Are we going to get updated packages for Karmic?

    I got really used to using this while in Jaunty and am finding it hard to go without the functionality..

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  21. hbNovember 4, 2009 at 4:04 PM

    Yes, I plan on updating the PPA once I get to upgrade to Karmic myself.

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  22. AnonymousNovember 7, 2009 at 1:58 PM

    A great solution, I'm really looking forward to the karmic version.

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  23. AnonymousNovember 16, 2009 at 7:22 AM

    Hi HB
    Any luck with porting this to 9.10?
    I am one of the eagerly waiting guys :-)

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  24. AnonymousNovember 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM

    Please, oh please upgrade to Karmic soon so you'll feel inclined to update this most wondrous of nautilus-versions!

    ReplyDelete
  25. hbNovember 20, 2009 at 2:15 PM

    Karmic packages are now available in the PPA. Please report bugs.

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  26. AnonymousNovember 21, 2009 at 7:52 AM

    Working perfectly in Karmic - thanks :-)

    ReplyDelete
  27. michabuntuNovember 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM

    Installed for Jaunty via ppa:
    the text in the not used panty insn't shown(folder names etc.) , also the background changes there...
    Change of Background in Nautilus has now become impossible after this installation!
    Is there a way to uninstall this?

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  28. hbNovember 22, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    > Is there a way to uninstall this?

    Remove the PPA from your Repositories. Then downgrade each package that you installed from the PPA (normally nautilus, nautilus-data and libnautilus-extension1, if you chose to also nautilus-dbg and libnautilus-extension-dev) by choosing Package -> Force Version in Synaptic.

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  29. ZapNovember 23, 2009 at 10:00 AM

    Just tried out the version for Karmic from the PPA: great!! Thank you so much!!

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  30. AnonymousNovember 23, 2009 at 2:30 PM

    Thanks a lot was this great additional feature in nautilus! However, when I use the New Wave Theme, I sometime get very ugly pink borders in the nautilus window. Would be great to fix that.
    Thanks again,

    Thomas

    ReplyDelete
  31. AnonymousNovember 23, 2009 at 8:26 PM

    Really cool. Thanks for it :)

    How big is the change to see this upstream?

    ReplyDelete
  32. hbNovember 23, 2009 at 10:42 PM

    >However, when I use the New Wave Theme, I sometime get very ugly pink borders in the nautilus window

    Can you provide a way to reproduce the problem? I don't usually use the New Wave Theme, and quick tests seemed to work fine.

    >How big is the change to see this upstream?

    It's a rather big patchset, affecting core parts of Nautilus. I didn't formally submit it for review yet, but when I do, review will take non-negligible effort and time from a core dev before it can possibly get accepted upstream. But of course, that's the goal.

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  33. dagon_December 1, 2009 at 9:47 PM

    Hey Holger. I love your split view Nautilus but it has an annoying bug and that is that sometimes it prevents windows from popping up directly. Like when you click on the Transmission daemon in the tray, Transmission should pop up immediately but it stays in the panel.

    I hope that you can sort this out because this is the most useful thing in Ubuntu in years :D

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  34. hbDecember 1, 2009 at 10:45 PM

    @dagon_: I cannot reproduce that. Also, Nautilus has nothing to do with the tray, so I doubt Nautilus is the reason for Transmission not popping up directly.

    ReplyDelete
  35. LVFDecember 3, 2009 at 5:44 PM

    Hi, I've been missing this functionality in Nautilus, but I don't use Ubuntu right now (I dont' like it either but, company policy). Is it very difficult to have this on a different distro, say, SuSE for example?
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  36. hbDecember 3, 2009 at 6:17 PM

    @Basurero: Well, I just did Ubuntu packages because I happen to use Ubuntu myself, somebody else did Arch Linux packages (http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=26529). I am not aware of packages for other distributions, and I am not going to make packages for SuSE because I don't know anything about SuSE packaging.

    Of course, there's always the code..

    ReplyDelete
  37. Helder FragaDecember 14, 2009 at 12:34 AM

    Good work, i have a request if i may,
    i would like to see a splited sidebar also, so i could see information and at the same time by bookmarks

    ReplyDelete

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