Idea #14370: Empty directories should have a different icon from those with files

282

Written by Endolith the 13 Oct 08 at 18:31. Category: Usability.
Related to: Nautilus. Status: New

Description

Hovering over a directory and looking at the status bar for "0 items" is slow. It would be nice if we could see at a glance that a directory contains nothing, or contains only other directories.

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HaydenMicallef wrote on the 13 Oct 08 at 20:16

You can set this to show up below the folder. e.g:

---------------------
Folder Icon

"Folder name"
"Items contained"
---------------------

You can set this is System->Preferences->File Management

openstandards wrote on the 14 Oct 08 at 00:49

If that easy then it should be default as it would make the system more user friendly.

andruk wrote on the 14 Oct 08 at 08:57

This may indeed be another thing that sets Linux apart from Windows from the get go. I think it should be turned on by default.

+1

Auzy wrote on the 14 Oct 08 at 09:32

Actually, it does exist in vista...

And the folder icon actually shows a preview of the contents, and you can even tell if it is folders within folders. You can see it in action here.

Via proper coding, overhead would be minimal. Even vistas design doesn't seem to increase overhead (as you can render only the folder icons as the folders become visible on screen).

And yes, it should be turned on by default, as it can help (although, Vista's implementation seems to be unable to deal with folders being updated on the desktop at the moment, but that's probably due to the fact they aren't actively reloaded, but that can be fixed in linux via inotify, and microsoft will probably fix it themselves by a similar method).

dotancohen wrote on the 14 Oct 08 at 15:10

Here is the upstream bug:
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153199

Sometimes one does not want to have folders previews, yet needs to know if a folder is empty. For instance, I have several Inbox folders (that other users FTP file to me through). Each folder has a different icon depending on what it is for. I want that icon, yet I still want an indicator if there is a file inside for me.

Endolith wrote on the 15 Oct 08 at 04:26

This would not "set Linux apart" from Windows. Windows has had this for years. :) It would just be playing catch-up.

I do not have a System->Preferences->File Management

philip wrote on the 15 Oct 08 at 08:27

This would be useful for navigating to the right folder.

Even more useful would be to show the thumbnails of the first four files inside their containing folder's icon, when it is magnified > 75%. Windows XP does this and it is useful.

You can also show the files inside the folder directly, separated visually by folder, when there are very few files inside the superfolder and the window is large. XP does this too, I think.

JGrubbs wrote on the 16 Oct 08 at 06:08

I do not have a System->Preferences->File Management

pestsov wrote on the 16 Oct 08 at 19:44

in some folders(that contains tons of folders) this would probably do nothing else but lugs..IMHO
=>you shold have an possibility to turn this option off in nautilus Edit-Parameters

Endolith wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 01:52

Lugs? Please stop saying "this should be an option" when there's absolutely no reason why something should be an option.

A_G_Olphart wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 02:33

How about an option (Default?) setting empty folders as a different color?

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