I've been trying to find a Panther screenshot that illustrates what happens when you double-click on a folder in icon/no-toolbar mode. I've seen many claims that the Panther finder works "just like Mac OS 9" in this mode, and that the "spatial Finder is back." But nobody in any forum or article has satisfactorily explained this.
To me, and I would think to other people, one of the founding principles of the spatial Finder is a one-to-one relationship between windows and folders. That means that when you double-click a folder, it doesn't just open a new window, it
becomes the new window. The folder icon you clicked on is now grayed out, and only one window can represent its contents. That's the way it worked before Mac OS X. Since then, you've been able to have multiple windows showing the same folder's contents, which is cool in column view, but can get confusing, especially to beginning users, in basic icon view.
Here it is in Mac OS 9
Notice the grayed-out folder icons indicating that the window is already open.
Here it is in Jaguar
Notice how in Jaguar, I'm able to have two identical windows open for the Users folder, and the fact that there is no way to tell by looking at the folder icon that a window is already open displaying its contents.
I wonder if someone could post a screenshot showing how this works in Panther.
So, command-n can create a new folder if you would like, or, if you would prefer, command-option-7 could, too :P
