Mac OS X Panther Feature? 'Piles' (The Patent Description)

[MacRumors]

This US Patent Application (http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=06243724&idkey=NONE) (appears better in IE than Safari) gives the nitty details of how Apple's implementation of 'Piles' (AKA 'Method and Apparatus for Organizing Information in a Computer System):

The patent was filed in 1994, but has gained interest with recent rumors (http://www.macedition.com/nmr/nmr_20030404.php) that the next major revision of Mac OS X (Panther) will utilize this design.

The function of a pile includes, of course, the grouping of documents... and a good description (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/04/20030413220229.shtml) was provided by this AskTog article (http://www.asktog.com/columns/035SquanAdv.html) -- however, spawned a surprising amount of confusion regarding implementation amongst users.

The Patent decsription provides more details on the actual implementation and also describes advanced sorting/searching functions, including:

- analysis of the content of a document in a pile
- automatically filing new documents according to criteria (date, content etc...)
- piles looking neat or disheavled per user preferences
- create/sort into subpiles based on criteria (date, content etc...)
- script based sorting of documents

[kanesean]

I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to try and copy this.

[qwerpafw]

Originally posted by kanesean
I wonder how long it will take for Microsoft to try and copy this.

well, lets see here... it's patented. So microsoft would get their ass sued off.

[NavyIntel007]

I get it now. That article is really good. I have to agree with him that while hardware has gone very far, many elements of the software need some help. File management is weak and archaic.

[NavyIntel007]

Originally posted by qwerpafw
well, lets see here... it's patented. So microsoft would get their ass sued off.

In which case, I hope they do :D

[MrMacMan]

Wow that pages looks HORRIBLE in Safari, the thing scrolls way way too much, bug, bug, bug!!!

[beatle888]

that page sucks, even in ie.
oh well. i like to view my project files in list or column view. list lets me see mod dates at a glance.

[FattyMembrane]

- analysis of the content of a document in a pile
- automatically filing new documents according to criteria (date, content etc...
- create/sort into subpiles based on criteria (date, content etc...)

i'm hoping that this is somehow related to a new filesystem (how cool would all kinds of BFS metadata hijinx be with piles?)

- script based sorting of documents

when considering that osx supports just about every scripting language available, the possibilities for both local and remote scripting of data makes one's head spin. this is great news, i hope that these ui innovations continue, now that the trouble of getting osx stable is out of the way.

[Perceptes]

I still don't think this sounds very useful. I'll have to see it in action. As posted above, I think the list view works just fine for me.

[iSmell]

Originally posted by qwerpafw
well, lets see here... it's patented. So microsoft would get their ass sued off.

"But your honor, our Mound™s are completely different from Apple's Piles. Piles represent a collection of files graphically. Mound™s represent groups of documents pictorially. The two systems are completely unrelated."

[Edot]

No more save dialog boxes! These "piles" seem to organize all of your files automatically! That would be very nice! Of course you should always be able to override the feature for individual files. I can't wait for panther, and I hope apple does something 'revolutionary' about the current management of data.

[kansaigaijin]

I think there is something to it for list and column view, the pile metaphor being just the graphical representation of what is going on behind the scenes in the file system. Reading about the BFS reminded me of the Newton file system, and the idea of a "soup" of files and meta-data.

you won't need to have an "organised" system or a tidy desk, all the meta-data will make it easy to fish something out of the "soup" or pile.

[maxterpiece]

Originally posted by NavyIntel007
I get it now. That article is really good. I have to agree with him that while hardware has gone very far, many elements of the software need some help. File management is weak and archaic.

I agree. It takes way longer than it needs to to navigate through even a long list of applications that have been neatly (by the user) placed in the right folder. A more dynamic way of organizing things that considers the habits and preferences of the user (i.e. mouse vs. keyboard commands, lots of apps vs. mixed documents) in organizing things a certain way. I also think that organizing things in named folders is makes things harder to keep organized. If the OS could work with the user (vs making hte user proactively think through it) to figure out the types of categories that that user thinks in, people would not have to make such a differentiation between how their computer organizes things and how their mind organizes things. I know this is all very vague, but I'm the user - I vent my frustrations. The developer figures out how to ease them. Hop to it, Apple.

max

[Mudbug]

the diagrams seem somewhat remeniscient (sp?) of hypercards, with multiple related pieces making up the whole. Seems like a good idea, but I've already separated my clients and stuff out the way that I know I like it. As has been said before, metadata would be nice to take advantage of, if for nothing else than for archiving like files together and being able to cross-reference them by multiple clients.

[Sol]

Personally I am happy to organize files by naming them and the folders they reside in. I hope piles have nothing to do with a dodgy demo from an old MacWorld where icons were navigated in a sort-of fly-through way on the screen (using then-impressive 2D scaling). A far more useful addition to file sorting would be the return of Finder labels. Considering that Aqua was so colorful to begin with, it was a disappointment to have Finder labels taken away from the Mac OS.

[G4scott]

It sounds like this would be a technology that Apple would let developers use, and the OS would support it, kinda like the way Rendezvous was implemented...

Personally, I think this feature will coincide with a release of an office type suite made by Apple. It would make sense. A productivity/office app that works with piles to help better organize projects, plans, and everything you work on.

It would then probably catch on with things like digital video production, and imaging.

Maybe this is why Apple is holding off with FCP4 until later... Or not. But still, it seems likely.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by iSmell
"But your honor, our Mound™s are completely different from Apple's Piles. Piles represent a collection of files graphically. Mound™s represent groups of documents pictorially. The two systems are completely unrelated." However, an astronomer named Henry in Belgium wrote a program to analyze phases of the sun in its sunspot cycle. He named the program Sun mode, which is obviously an anagram of Mounds (with an extra 'e' we can't explain), so we are suing him for $1,000,000,000 and ownership of the name Henry and the rights to the inheritance of his grandmother's china.

[macFanDave]

Microsoft will steal "Piles" and use a synonym to try to cover up their theft.

Look out for Microsoft Hemorrhoids XP in 2004.

[sawaguchishinji]

Originally posted by macFanDave
Microsoft will steal "Piles" and use a synonym to try to cover up their theft.

Look out for Microsoft Hemorrhoids XP in 2004.

No, they'll use a "database" file-system.
Apple could improve the OS to be like BeOS, providing a even better user experience
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=421&page=1

[G4scott]

Originally posted by macFanDave
Microsoft will steal "Piles" and use a synonym to try to cover up their theft.

Look out for Microsoft Hemorrhoids XP in 2004.

Yeah, they Symantec would have to make a "Preparation H Hemorrhoids fixer" to make the feature actually usable...

I can see the blondes now... "My computer said it had hemorrhoids, so I squeezed some @$$-cream in the case!"

I really don't think Microsoft will steal it like that. It would be a acrappy interpretation of Piles, and it would suck, and it wouldn't make the next cut of windoze...

[xjohn]

I would imagine that the ideas behind 'piles' have matured a lot since 1994.

I wonder how much it has evolved from the patent drawing...

[FattyMembrane]

all this talk of micro$oft's stealing shenanigans reminds me of a few articles published a couple of months ago. apparently, ms was working on some kind of special 3d task-based interface that would be in the next version of windows. well, i wasn't that surprised when all of the longhorn and flackbomb screenshots and info had nothing about these revolutionary features. now i understand why; they were waiting to see what apple was going to do :rolleyes: .

anyway... i have no doubt that by 2006-7 some kind of piles derivitave will end up in windows and the masses will thank bill gates for making their lives easier (by stealing a 3 year old technology). no lawsuits, no nothing. name one product micro$oft has sold that was not stolen, a rehashing of old technology, or bought from someone else.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by FattyMembrane
name one product micro$oft has sold that was not stolen, a rehashing of old technology, or bought from someone else. That's easy: Microsoft Bob. Completely original, developed in-house, and abandoned after mass embarrassment.

[sawaguchishinji]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
That's easy: Microsoft Bob. Completely original, developed in-house, and abandoned after mass embarrassment.

What was it?

[BaghdadBob]

I mean aside from what all Apple-loyalists have against Apple...



But I thought the tabbed interface idea was the best one in there. Having people as dynamic objects is an interesting idea too. As for the file cabinet...It just sounds like a bunch of folders, represented in a big fat icon with drawers on it. Am I wrong..."[I]Have we gone to far to get home, yeah..."

The tabbed interface really does cach my attention. I think that's a fine idea. Almost like having three monitors in one. Truly, in my opinion, an idea with promise. I wonder if anyone at Apple really cares what the pontificators think?

Likelyhood is that if anyone does they'd have to pretend it was their own idea to Jobs -- pleasing the masses is so passe.

Unlike hiring a leading Democrat to your board on the cuff of a Democrat-opposed war, and then talking about breaking the bank buying a partially (?) French company, that rules.

[kansaigaijin]

an american company temporarily owned by a canadian(booze), then a french (water) company. You should be proud to have it repatriated by Steve Jobs, but ya, you are right to ask where the money is coming from. China perhaps,

and that Tog guy, why does he bother? He rants on and then says M$ is better.
I didn't like the Tabs(browsing is different) in the OS, or the Control Strip. Besides, his stuff is old, and he hasn't bothered to update.

[NavyIntel007]

If you read that guys article he talks about things like how to identify a folder if it's full and really full by animating the icon or changing the color of the folder if it hasn't been modified in a while. All of these things are viable and probably easily implimentable tools that we should eventually be able to take for granted.

By the way, the only Piles in Microsoft are the ones floating in the bathroom stalls in Redmond. ;) :eek:

[jg3]

... having a hard time respecting a guy who purports to have written a semi-professional article, yet refers to the operating system as "OS-X"...

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by sawaguchishinji
What was it? Microsoft Bob was an overly user-friendly user interface announced by Microsoft in January 1995. It had hefty hardware requirements despite using only 256 colors. It was supposed to integrate eight commonly used functions: address book, calendar, checkbox, letter writer, etc., and make them easy to use by beginners. Instead, it treated everyone as a child and annoyed the heck out of almost everyone.

Microsoft claimed they had invented a new style of computing, called "the social user interface". One Microsoft research report said[Bob] communicates to the user through speech balloons which present a small group of buttons for the operations most likely to be used next. This allows the user to focus on a single source of relevant information without becoming overwhelmed by large numbers of options. The guides also provide tips and suggestions to introduce new capabilities, or to point out more efficient ways of completing a task. User studies with Bob have verified that for many people, the social metaphor reduces the anxiety associated with computer use.

Microsoft Bob's logo was a smiley face with glasses:

http://aries.www.media.mit.edu/people/aries/bob2.gif.

Microsoft of course had spent a fortune on publicity and the product was stacked up to the ceiling in computer stores at first. Bob died a swift and deserving death but the cartoon characters it used turned into the talking paperclip and the other annoying helpers in Microsoft Office.

Here's a screenshot of Bob's "public family room":

http://www.telecommander.com/pics/links/application%20software/microsoft/Microsoft_Bob_1_0/Microsoft_Bob_1_0_files/overview.gif

Looks just like the "kiddie interfaces" you can buy for 7-year-olds, doesn't it?

There is a whole tutorial about Microsoft Bob at Nathan's Toasty Technology page (http://toastytech.com/guis/bob2.html).

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
and that Tog guy, why does he bother? He rants on and then says M$ is better.
I didn't like the Tabs(browsing is different) in the OS, or the Control Strip. Besides, his stuff is old, and he hasn't bothered to update. [/B]

Well, I have to say, my own daddy-pops recently had some shocking things to say about what he felt about the company, to which he has been loyal (and a VAR, before the reseller standards revolution) for almost two decades.

He actually said something about switching...the BAD kind of switching. That's really, really harsh coming from him. He also said he's going to use all 16,000 votes he's got against Gore AND Jobs at the next investor thingy...

But as far as tabbed interface goes, I just think it would be cool to be able to switch from one set of windows and desktop icons and dock items and open applications to another. Like sitting at a desk with multiple computers. The possibilities for us graphic types and for customer service centers and people who truly use their computer for a variety of different and in-depth uses is pretty good.

Remember when there was the myth that you have to close all your windows before you shut down? Then it was debunked by the finest Macintosh scientists. Well some of us do anyway, because we hate visual clutter. But functional clutter, when organized, can be highly productive. That's why super-important people have big desks. I'll betcha if they had a button that would clean off their desk and put everything away, and then again put everything back in it's mess, they, like most of us, would use it both ways.

"It all makes sense, if you just stand back and absorb it..."

Plus, with multiple interface tabs open and Quartz extreme, you could do a Brady Bunch view with your different desktops and drag stuff around! WOW!!!!

[foniks2020]

Originally posted by BaghdadBob

The tabbed interface really does cach my attention. I think that's a fine idea. Almost like having three monitors in one. Truly, in my opinion, an idea with promise. I wonder if anyone at Apple really cares what the pontificators think?



Have you tried Virtual Desktop... it's not exactly what you're referring to or what he described but it's a start.

In fact one of it's drawbacks is that it is so transparent that you forget to take advantage of it, it's just there.

For instance I have all graphics apps (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) set to open on their own desktop space, while my coding apps (BBedit, Dreamweaver, etc.) open on another and my browser and mail app each have their own desktop and media viewers have another. While it doesn't keep the desktop clutter down it does keep the open app clutter to a minimum without having to minimize apps all the time.

So the next step would in fact be to have independent file space on the desktop so that the files or folders on my media desktop were not the same as those on my coding desktop or my mail desktop, etc. This would equate to the tabbed desktop space he referred to though I don't think 'tabs' are necessary'

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by foniks2020
So the next step would in fact be to have independent file space on the desktop so that the files or folders on my media desktop were not the same as those on my coding desktop or my mail desktop, etc. This would equate to the tabbed desktop space he referred to though I don't think 'tabs' are necessary'

No tabs, unless they popped up like (or were in) the dock. But you'd want to switch easily.

And I would would want to have different finder windows open, too, that would be important.

Is Virtual Desktop 3rd party? It rings a bell but I'm not familiar with it.

[kansaigaijin]

and everybody lives in the shadow of Mt Raineer? sp?

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
and everybody lives in the shadow of Mt Raineer? sp?

Duh...huh??

[kansaigaijin]

all kinds of things to be found out there on the web Bob. I don't expect everything to come out of Cupertino god forbid Redmond.

www.macosxhints.com

[kansaigaijin]

look up at the picture posted by Doctor Q.

[jmptoit]

Is there a decent TIFF plugin for proper viewing of the patent image?

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
and everybody lives in the shadow of Mt Raineer? sp?

HA! I see. According to my in-house Seattle specialist it's "Rainier."

That is one fugly interface. Man, I made prettier stuff in Hypercard. Before color.

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by jmptoit
Is there a decent TIFF plugin for proper viewing of the patent image?

You shouldn't need a plug in, but you will have to scroll all the way down...... Someone should submit some modern technology to the patent office :D

[herr_neumann]

Originally posted by NavyIntel007
In which case, I hope they do :D

Hey, like I said in the other thread, MS will release Stacks, and it will be totaly completly absolutly different and original.....;)

[beatle888]

doesnt anyone remember the brief talk about navigating with a cluster like system? as you move the cursor over a certain type of data or file it opens up to subdivisions. it was called clustering or sumpen like that. they had a visual that looked like brain storming or like thought balloons all tied in. mouse toward a certain cluster of info and it polentated the screen with sub clusters. go towards a sub cluster and more baby clusters would sprout. it was pretty cool. hey that sounds really organic. anyway, does anyone remember that? it was like ten years ago. maybe they found that they couldnt accomplish it with OS9, i think the closest they got was what ended up being spring loaded folders. but system ten with all its meta data capabilities just might of ended up being the perfect fit, the clusters would, as said earlier by another member, organize themselfs. this might be what jobs ment about not having to be the janitor of your computer.

[beatle888]

Originally posted by foniks2020
Have you tried Virtual Desktop...

yes i love it. the first piece of shareware i actually ended up using. i paid for it. sorta pricey at $30 but useful. its just a really nice windows manager is all. perfect for laptops, but desktop systems can benefit from its contribution to a work flow as well.

[beatle888]

Originally posted by Sol
I hope piles have nothing to do with a dodgy demo from an old MacWorld where icons were navigated in a sort-of fly-through way on the screen (using then-impressive 2D scaling).

Ah, someone does remember clustering :D yup i think thats what this is. believe me it will feel so natural. you just pilot through your data, click, and the file opens while the clusters either dissapear or they stay open depending on a preference setting (or maybe if you click to the right of the file name your clusters dissapear and if you click to the left of the file name the clusters stay open. i can sorta work that way already with virtual desktop. you can set CodeTeks Virtual Desktop to automaticaly bring a window to the front just by hovering over it.

[shakespeare]

Originally posted by BaghdadBob
You shouldn't need a plug in, but you will have to scroll all the way down...... Someone should submit some modern technology to the patent office :D

Actually, you will need a plug-in, it's just that most of us already have it: QuickTime.

[dongmin]

Originally posted by BaghdadBob
That's why super-important people have big desks.


precious

[minux]

Looks fine in Mozilla (1.2.1) in 9.2.2. Hey how about you all get a REAL browser, and a REAL Mac OS?

Mike

[eric_n_dfw]

Originally posted by minux
Looks fine in Mozilla (1.2.1) in 9.2.2. Hey how about you all get a REAL browser, and a REAL Mac OS?

Mike
Oooohhh- good one, Mike.

I'm going to reinstall OS 9 right away.
:rolleyes:


Oh wait - I'm NOT an idiot. :p

[William M Sharp]

The scheme for organizing files described in the patent application seems clear and intuitive, but "piles" is a dreadful name. It is, of course, a synonym for hemorrhoids, and it sounds enough like "files" to invite confusion. How about "stacks"?

[backdraft]

Originally posted by BaghdadBob
I mean aside from what all Apple-loyalists have against Apple...



But I thought the tabbed interface idea was the best one in there. Having people as dynamic objects is an interesting idea too. As for the file cabinet...It just sounds like a bunch of folders, represented in a big fat icon with drawers on it. Am I wrong..."[I]Have we gone to far to get home, yeah..."

The tabbed interface really does cach my attention. I think that's a fine idea. Almost like having three monitors in one. Truly, in my opinion, an idea with promise. I wonder if anyone at Apple really cares what the pontificators think?

Likelyhood is that if anyone does they'd have to pretend it was their own idea to Jobs -- pleasing the masses is so passe.

Unlike hiring a leading Democrat to your board on the cuff of a Democrat-opposed war, and then talking about breaking the bank buying a partially (?) French company, that rules.

Tabbed Interface Anyone? :D http://www.geocities.com/juan_m007/tab.html

Now imagine being able to group windows/documents together in any application not just the Finder, it would make switching between documents a lot easier!

More ideas: http://www.geocities.com/juan_m007

Hopefully by sending this link to apple via feedback they'll get ideas and improve aqua.

[beatle888]

im sure theyve already considered using tabs in the finder. i would be surprised if they hadnt. who knows maybe we will see them in an OS update one day. i would use it, but the tool bar, back/forward and path buttons work really well for me.

[RIP]

Something tells me that I will need Quartz Extreme for this new feature. Time to buy a new Mac.:p

[eric_n_dfw]

Originally posted by RIP
Something tells me that I will need Quartz Extreme for this new feature. Time to buy a new Mac.:p
There's not anything that would require it, but offloading the compositing of those icons would surely help the speed of it being displayed/manipulated.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by beatle888
doesnt anyone remember the brief talk about navigating with a cluster like system?I remember seeing a demo of "flying through" a filesystem, where the folders and files zoom by you like a starship moving through space. If you head into a folder, it opens and you see the files inside the same way. If Apple provides a 3D view like that, we might all want to switch to joysticks. However, with a conventional filesystem, a given file is in only one container - its enclosing folder. Even if you can fly through to see it, that fact remains.

However, if files can have new attributes for grouping or belong to many stacks, piles, clusters, etc., then a file can be in as many groups as you like, based on criteria you pick. Then all you need is the convenience to look for files by any of these criteria whenever you access files, e.g., on the desktop, in Open and Save dialog boxes, in applications that deal with certain types of files, etc. That's what I want to see.

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
all kinds of things to be found out there on the web Bob. I don't expect everything to come out of Cupertino god forbid Redmond.

www.macosxhints.com

I know there are. But I have this funny ideal that Apple should revolutionize their own interface, irregardless of how good TPS is. Especially if they want the bragging rights of having a truly superior OS, they can't just have marginal superiority here and there, they have to revolutionize the way people work with their UI...

For the better, BTW. That means you, Apple.

[kansaigaijin]

barking up the wrong tree Bob, I don't think Apple puts too much effort into monitoring macosrumors, although it is fun a lot of the time. (this site)

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
barking up the wrong tree Bob, I don't think Apple puts too much effort into monitoring macosrumors, although it is fun a lot of the time. (this site)

On the contrary, I think Jobs monitors these forums personally to ensure that he doesn't inadvertantly do anything we would have found too close to our own ideas of "good" or "useful." I wasn't on this site before OS X came out, but I'll bet that of all the ideas of what it could have done the genie effect was the last thing anone saw coming....

"Ha! It'll be the last thing they expect!!"

[The Reaper]

to those who are unsure as to how the files will arrange themselves, note that panther is said to use extensive 'metadata'. this is similar to how iTunes can sort your files by bitrate, filesize etc, but it will be in the finder. piles are simply like 'smart playlists' in itunes, that accumulate and remove files according to criteria you set for each pile. imagine a pile with your "25 most used documents" or "Jpegs larger than 100kb, created after 12/03/03, used in the last month" etc. imagine the possibilities.

now, i'm sure most of you don't use your smart playlists in itunes very often, but such a feature in the finder will have a different order of functionality.

finally, to those worried about expanded views of piles going off the screen, just imagine that only 1 file is fully spaced out between the others, and the distance between floating icons decreases as you look above/below your cursor. imagine each pile is like a dock with magnification turned on, only vertical, and the sizes of the icons don't change, only the distance between them.

to those worried about older computers having difficulties with previewing the files within a pile, just imagine that each image has its preview BUILT IN to the icon. currently, for most images, the previews are generated 'on the fly' in Jaguar. this eats up processing power and places more demands on the hard drive, taking more time. this would cause piles to 'stick' when they are opening. if every file (ie images, text) had a small preview BUILT IN to the icon (or into its associated data), this would allow much faster performance. imagine that whenever a file is created, this preview is saved along with it. this can also apply to movies with a few seconds of a low res (128 by 128 max) preview movie. sure, this will add a little to file size (a REALLY tiny bit) but it will be worth it. of course, as in the current finder in column view, you will be able to see the full, larger previews such as movies at full size (in piles, when your cursor actally passes over each file), and this information will have to be taken from the file itself (on the fly). but the icon image/movie previews will be prerrecorded.

on another note, what do you think about putting more maginification in the finder in general? like waving your cursor over some small icons in a finder window and having them magnify?

[Swisschick]

Easy to see how people can get upset over certain deficiencies in OS gui, but then why get worked up. Maybe piles is somewhat useful, but what was wrong with folders or archives. At the end of the day, your work has to be saved and back upped. And a personal computer is a machine for one person. And who cares about the location of the "ok" or "cancel" box. Because of 1/2 a second, I'm not worried a bit.

Yes, Mac OS X is not as "strictly logical" as Mac OS 9 maybe was, and it does not take the hardware to new paradigms as much as it maybe could. There's still no "3D file system" even though 3D works very fast and very well, as software like Unreal Tournament proves. But using OS X practically, it crashes very rarely if at all, and it provides a strange type of fluency that is a real time saver. When working towards deadlines, I'm simply less tired and get on faster. The collapsable windows together with the dock are very good. I also use old round iMac mice on the new G4 computers simply because even though they look somewhat weird, they work very fast.

The real innovation probably lies in taking networked applications to new levels.

There, XML, RSS, pHp and mySQL are the technologies that are really ground breaking. Already now, the free pHp/mySQL-based 'gallery' package is ten times as useful as iPhoto - even if you only run it locally under Mac OS X - and even then, people on the same network can also look at the images without additional work; you can copy whole albums because albums are represented by finder folders - unthinkable with iPhoto.

swisswuff (using swisschick's login account)

[coyote]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
I think there is something to it for list and column view, the pile metaphor being just the graphical representation of what is going on behind the scenes in the file system.

I don't think that this is how Piles are intended to be used. I think they're intended to be a way of organizing small collections of documents, such as documents related to buying a new house, or preparing your taxes. This may replace folders containing small numbers of items, but I think that you'll still have a Documnts folder, for example, which in turn may contain some Piles.