Re: Gnome-utils branched to gnome-2-14

[Emmanuele Bassi <ebassi gmail com>]

Hi Shaun,

On Mon, 2006-02-06 at 11:41 -0600, Shaun McCance wrote:

> > The "Master Plan" is:
> 
> > Screenshot
> > 	* heavy bugzilla love
> > 	* remove the file name entry and use a filechooser button
> 

> In cases 1 and 2, I typically save directly to my public_html
> folder on master.gnome.org.  (I love the GnomeVFS integration
> we've got in the GTK+ file choosers these days.)  In 2 and 3,
> I'm often taking a series of screenshots, and I love the fact
> that the Screenshot tool remembers my last folder.

This won't change at all.  The machinery that saves the last folder will
always be there, since I agree with you that's it's a (or even the most)
useful feature of the screen shooter.

> With a file chooser button, to rename the file, I always have
> to click the button and type in a new name.  I also can't see
> at a glance which folder I'm saving into.

I can add a label with the save location under the preview image, for
faster look up, but it must be understood that the file name entry is
demonstrably broken, as it doesn't do what it seems to be doing.

For instance, the entry doesn't really control the file name up until
the very end: it won't work if you are going to save by drag and drop,
for instance.

For reference, see:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=325708
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170171

It also strikes me as the only UI of the overall desktop that uses a
separation of the file name and the location, which makes it
inconsistent.

Also, there's a lot of unused real estate on the dialog, for which the
layout should be changed to a vertical one, which would make the preview
image a little bit bigger.

There are two possible solutions:

  1. add a knob which controls the visibility of the filename entry, in
form of a GConf key or a command line switch or an expander or whatever;
personally, I like the idea of an expander for the entire file location
stuff, see:

http://log.emmanuelebassi.net/images/shots/screenshot-collapsed.png
http://log.emmanuelebassi.net/images/shots/screenshot-expanded.png

the default location would be either the desktop or the last saved
location; the default name of the file would be defined by the name of
the window or the date of the shot, for instance; obviously, the state
of the expander would be saved across instances, so that you wouldn't
have to click it over the next time you want a screen shot.

  2. make the screenshot open a save dialog upon clicking the "Save"
button, which should become a "Save as"; the dialog would have the file
name entry and would remember the last saved location.

I don't have strong feelings with option 1: knobs, UI tweakers and such
never really bothered me, and I see that the entry has its sense; it's
just that it confuses people and it's really not consistent with the
rest of the UI I've seen on the desktop.  Option number 2 would open yet
another dialog, but it would make things easier.

Option no. 1 would also make adding a UI for supporting multiple image
formats easier; for instance, while a 300x200 PNG image of a window is
perfectly fine, a 1280x1024x24 bit PNG image (a full screenshot of a
desktop) is really huge, compared to a JPEG one (see bug 169450 at
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=169450 for the RFE), e.g.:

http://log.emmanuelebassi.net/images/shots/screenshot-expanded-format.png

> For me, the current interface is nearly perfect.  Without any
> extra dialogs, I can see where I'm saving and change the file
> name.  Everything I need is right there.  The only thing you
> could do to make it better for me is to select everything but
> the ".png" on the file name, like Nautilus does when renaming
> a file.

Already in the RFE list for the next cycle:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312346

> So are we making this change because we really believe it's
> better, or are we using widgets for the sake of using them?

I really wouldn't touch something unless is strictly necessary, and
surely not just for breaking something that works; but the file name
entry does not really work like it *seems* to work.  I would not put a
disclaimer on the dialog, though, to make it perfectly clear that the
file name entry is just for the file name and not for the path; or that
the file name is just used when saving and not when dragging and
dropping.  And closing those bug as RESOLVED WONTFIX doesn't strike me
as useful: I can see both the use cases.

Ciao,
 Emmanuele.

-- 
Emmanuele Bassi - <ebassi gmail com>
Log: http://log.emmanuelebassi.net