Spatial File Manager
Spatial file managers use a spatial metaphor to represent files and directories as if they were actual physical objects. A spatial file manager imitates the way people interact with physical objects.
Some ideas behind the concept of a spatial file manager are:
- A single window represents each opened directory
- Each window is unambiguously and irrevocably tied to a particular directory.
- Stability: files, directories, and windows go where the user moves them, stay where the user puts them ("preserve their spatial state"), and retain all their other "physical" characteristics (such as size, shape, color and location).
- The same item can only be viewed in one window at a time.
As in navigational file managers, when a directory is opened, the icon representing the directory changes—perhaps from an image showing a closed drawer to an opened one, perhaps the directory's icon turns into a silhouette filled with a pattern—and a new window is opened to represent that directory.
Read more about this topic: File Manager
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