Comment 26 for bug 194213

"There is one advantage about my idea that I perhaps failed to make clear enough in my original comment: with different emblems the idea provides for both cut and copy actions (which is not shown in my mockup). Also, there are probably already provisions in Nautilus for handling such emblems; at least there are the default Nautilus emblems which should work similarly."

I like that there's an interest in going this direction, but for me I think emblems is not the right approach. There was some talk by Nautilus people before about having a 'shelf' system (which is kind of akin to the 'trash' system in a way) wherein you shelve items that have been copied or cut, and at some point you can view them in the shelf. Conceptually this makes much more sense to me because cut/copied items will always be in the same place, and to find out what "Paste" will yield at any given time is as simple as looking in your shelf.

I think dimming an icon that represents a cut icon is important because it indicates, as David said, that this file may soon cease to exist in its present location. I don't think there's really a need to give any indication at all of a copied file in its existing location. When you copy a file, that doesn't affect the file in its original location and it's really only useful to know about copied files when you're in a different location.

That said, while I like the shelf idea conceptually.. I also don't have any brilliant ideas about how that might work in terms of a user interface/experience. If someone here comes up with something brilliant, you'll be a hero to many.