Re: [Usability]Dealing with files in Gnome

[Wesley Leggette <wleggette gate net>]

Hello Reinout,

On Tue, 2003-04-01 at 03:38, Reinout van Schouwen wrote:
> Hello Wesley,
> 
> On Tue, 31 Mar 2003, Wesley Leggette wrote:
> 
> > Regarding Pick up and drop, I think the semantics are no better. What
> > happens if you "pick up" one object, then another, and then drop? It
> 
> The way this ought to work is to let it be impossible to pick up more than
> one object (or group of objects) at a time.

That would be simpler, although some sort of walking bag trick would be
fun (but maybe a bit impractical).

> 
> > would work this same way, the change in terminology is pointless. We all
> > know what cut, copy, and paste mean and it's more than logical to assume
> > our users do to.
> 
> I'd wager to guess most of "our users" are familiar with editing
> operations in the context of word processing. But I highly doubt this is
> the case for file management - stretching the cut/copy/paste metaphor to
> that area was, IMHO, silly to begin with.

On a theoretical standpoint I agree with what you're saying, but it
seems like a drastic move for such a small thing unless people are
actually having problems handling the metaphor. Do you see this
happening where you are?

> 
> > it's different that traditional cut and paste, the name change would be
> > appropriate. And hey, we could always have a preferences toggle between
> > the two modes of operation.
> 
> A pref for this would just shove the problem on the users' plate, and we'd
> still be arguing which mode is to be made the default one.

so true.

> 
> regards,
-- 
Wesley Leggette <wleggette gate net>