Re: Killing views [Was: Dealing with files in Gnome]

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl>]

[re-adding usability gnome org and quoting verbatim]

Hi Julio,

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Julio Biason wrote:

> > So, why don't we have a printer icon on the desktop? After all we have a
> > trashcan and a floppy icon too. In these days where CUPS is ubiquitous,
> > that shouldn't pose much of a problem. That way you could drag a arbitrary
> > file to the printer icon and let it be printed by whatever app is
> > registered to handle that file type. No need to clutter the Nautilus
> > toolbar with this.
>
> This way we'll get something like OS/2 had: every app (or every app
> should have) an icon that could be dragged around. So you could drag
> the file you were typing without (closing the text editor or opening
> the file manager) to the printer or to the floppy.

Actually yes, I was thinking of something like the Workplace Shell but
didn't want to say it out loud. :) Anyway what I was suggesting was not to
drag something from within an app but just to be able to drag an icon from
a nautilus view to a printer object, just like the way the trashcan works.

> Sadly, that never worked very well, as users always used the Print
> option in the File menu.

That depends. Real OOUI-oriented apps didn't even have a File menu.

> So, draging stuff around is cool, but the users never expect that
> drag'n'drop will work as they think[1]. Using toolbars and buttons and

If that's true, then isn't it our job to make DnD work as they think?

> menus make the action very obvious.

DnD shouldn't be the only way to accomplish a task, if only because of
a11y reasons. But it could prevent toolbar clutter.

> [1] I can point that sometimes, dragin a file will copy it and
> sometimes will move it. I know why this happen, but the "Joe Average"
> user don't.

Correct, and that is why this behaviour should be made more consistent. I
remember a thread about this very subject some time ago, not sure if
anything ever came of it.

regards,

-- 
Reinout van Schouwen			Artificial Intelligence student
email: reinout cs vu nl			mobile phone: +31-6-44360778
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