re-organize context menus

[Danielle Foré]

The organization of the current context menus is a little odd. I'd like to propose a new organization that (hopefully) puts more used items towards the top and lesser used items towards the bottom. It's organization also allows menus to be more consistent in their placement amongst themselves (even though they contain different items). Note that I used the phrase "Get Info" instead of "Properties". I feel like this is a more friendly wording, but this is only my opinion and I won't protest if you disagree on that point. Here is the proposal:

### Click in an Empty Space:

Create New Folder...
--
Select All
Paste
--
Show Hidden Files and Folders
--
Get Info

### Click on a Folder:

Open
Open in New Tab
--
Cut
Copy
Paste into Folder
--
%Contractor
--
Rename...
--
Move to Trash
Delete
--
Colors
--
Get Info

### Click on an Item:

Open with "DefaultAppName"
Open with >
--
Cut
Copy
--
%Contractor
--
Rename...
--
Move to Trash
Delete
--
Colors
--
Get Info

[ammonkey (am-monkeyd)]

I don't find the menus messy, they are pretty well organised actually. And u already find on top the most used actions on a file manager :
- clipboard action: cut/copy/paste
- file operation action : rename move to trash delete...
- open with section
- contracts section
-property

If i want to Open a folder or a file i probably just click on it instead of right click + open.
So this entry menu is unnecessary.

I think open with section and contract should stick together they are about the same applications semantic.
Maybe 5 open with applications menus is a bit too much reducing to 3 may be better.

I agree that select all should move to the clipboard section.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

I would definitely have to disagree.

The most often used action is always going to be "Open". So it follows that open (and open with) should be at the very top of the menu, not near the bottom. This *always* throws me off when I try to "open with". Every file manager puts this at the top for good reason.

Having Open (with the default app) is helpful as a validation. If I'm unsure what app will open and I go to look for "Open with" and it's not present... well that's going to feel weird. But if I already know what app will open and I see it in the "Open with" menu it's going to make me question just wtf *is* the default app for this mime type. So It is important to make a user feel comfortable and educated about their system.

Open With and Contractor are absolutely *not* the same. Open With spawns another application, Contractor initiates an action. This is akin to the "Send to" menu from Nautilus. Not the same as Open at all.

You also forgot the colors which is currently floating in the middle of the menu. It should be the 2nd-to-last item since it's a "set and forget" option. It's certainly not more common than the actions it currently sits above.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

Contractor actions are going to be used a lot less over a files life than "open" actions. How many times will I open an image in various image editors (open with) before I send it via mail (contractor). Contractor actions are almost always going to be performed on a file exactly 1 time.

[ammonkey (am-monkeyd)]

That remind me exactly the discussion we had yesterday: nowadays u don't use a filemanager to open files but to manage your files, dash & open with dialogs from applications are used to open files. That is exactly why the menus are the way they are file managing actions being on top.

[ammonkey (am-monkeyd)]

"Having Open (with the default app) is helpful as a validation. If I'm
unsure what app will open and I go to look for "Open with" and it's not
present..."

it can make sense on files for mime default action check indeed but i don't really see the point on a folder.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

Okay, for starters you're applying your personal use case to all users and you're assuming two applications that do the same thing (something we've taken a pretty hard stance against in elementary).

But you're completely leaving off the consistency case. What about the sidebar context menu where cut/copy don't apply but Open does? Open needs to be at the top of the menu and Properties at the bottom for this reason alone, even if we discounted the frequency of the open action (which I highly doubt is how most users utilize the file manager).

[ammonkey (am-monkeyd)]

Unity got a dash, gnome-shell got a dash, gnome2 got synapse, i don't think it's a personal use case. It's the evolution of theses desktops, filemanagers being re-centered on their primary task: manage files.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

Even if you ignore both importance/frequency and you ignore consistent placement within the application, You still have an issue with consistency across the desktop. Cut/copy/paste just don't go at the top of the menu in any application anywhere.

[ammonkey (am-monkeyd)]

So finally u're saying that importance/frequency doesn't really matter and we should do like other applications do regardless of their menu actions. That s a good question follow blindly the menus of other apps or evaluate the application usage.

For marlin i choose the second option, i didn't want massive menus and didn't wanted neither submenus which just add complexity.
Contracts are not just another sendto menu, they clearly more than that and very close to an open with action and sometimes u just can't say the difference between a contract and an open with action. What is the difference between "Burn to Disk" and open with Brasero ? Let say i add an imaginary contract like Play a movie what is the difference between Open with Totem and Play a movie? Theses are the reasons which tell me that contracts belong with open with actions, they are extended actions not very different than a 3th 4th 5th open with action item.

Of course if we didn't imposed ourselves not to have submenus our menus would be different.

[PinGUY (antoni-norman)]

I would like to be able to use marlin in 11.10 but due to the right click menu and it not working with any of the Nautilus plugins I can't use it.

The file browser is a huge part of the system that handles the desktop and other parts of the system. It needs to to be able to fit in. At the moment the right click menu is just out of place.

[ammonkey (am-monkeyd)]

Of course it doesn't run nautilus plugins because guess what, it's not nautilus. Neither it has to run thunar plugin or whatever other FM plugins. Did i really needed to state the obvious ???

I already explained the menus organisation, Dolphin use the same kind of organisation and i never read such complaints on the menus. The only difference in marlin is the open with section and the contractor section (equivalent to action) are not in submenus. This way u got all the interactions u need on a single click; no need to go in endless submenus.

Now u still don't like it, it's ok, it's life, we can't please everybody i guess.