"Spatial" mode?

[Romeyn Prescott]

At 12:28 PM -0500 12/15/04, msimplay scribbled:
>hate spatial mode it mode
>i don't see the logic in not having an address bar
>and yes none of those articles are very convincing
>Besides i thought Gnome was supposed to make it simple for users
>spatial is something that goes in the opposite direction of simple and
>its something you have to get used to but i rather not
>i would have prefered if they added tabs like with Konqueror


You only have to "get used to" something if you're already used to 
something else!!  The original article at arstechnica made some 
interesting observations noting that "spatial mode" more closely 
mimics "Real Life" use of desktops, files (pieces of paper) and 
folders and is that to which most people can most easily relate.  If 
you were weened on the CLI and were never used to seeing where you've 
been or where you're going, then getting used to ANYTHING "different" 
is going to be painful.

As a consultant on the side, I work with a LOT of people who finally 
decided to take the plunge and get a computer.  Over the years I have 
found that the very best thing to explain the vagaries of a 
computer's OS and its presentation are to draw, whenever possible, 
upon real-world analogies to things with which people are already 
familiar.  Following that, I would have a hard time explaining why a 
folder disappears when you open it, because that doesn't happen in 
Real Life.  If I remove a hanging folder from a file cabinet and open 
it and it contains a manila folder and I open THAT, I can still see 
the hanging folder behind it.  It doesn't vanish in a puff of smoke!

Now maybe there are those OCD types whose Real-Life desktops are just 
as clean as their virtual ones...the kind of person who realizes that 
he's not USING the hanging folder at the moment and takes the time to 
return it to the cabinet immediately lest it clutter his desk.  But I 
think those types are few and far between!

-- 
signat-url: http://www2.potsdam.edu/prescor/signat-url.htm