Re: [Epiphany] Bookmarks window changes

[dave <bordoley msu edu>]

On Sat, 2003-02-15 at 08:14, Christian Rose wrote:
> 
> I've given some thought about this and how it relates to using bookmarks
> (in Galeon¹) in my own case, and if/why I ever use the location field --
> it could, as you argue, just be considered a non-editable property, much
> like the primary key in a database, at first sight.
> 
> My answer is "yes, I do use it", and even though it's not the most
> frequently used feature it's not that uncommon over a longer period of
> time. The reasons are basically as follows:
> 
> 1) Many web sites set excessively verbose page titles, or even none at
> all. Instead of "Welcome to the web site of FooCorp Inc." or even
> "Untitled" I prefer something short and descriptive as "FooCorp" in my
> bookmarks, in order to cut down the irrelevant information and be able
> to actually find the bookmark later.

I'm not against allowing users to retitle bookmarks for the reasons you
have listed above. 

> 
> 2) I rarely categorize bookmarks when I first file them, but later try
> to do bigger cleanups. Then I move the bookmarks into different bookmark
> folders, or even create new folders if I have several bookmarks of some
> kind.

Well epiphany doesn't have folders, we have keywords that can be set per
bookmark, and I do think users should be able to change these as they
choose, since there is little possibility for data loss.

> 
> 3) The web is dynamic and web sites actually move stuff around, for
> better and for worse. They move content to different directories,
> archive the content, or rename files from .html to .php, .shtml or
> whatever. I sometimes find that bookmarks are no longer valid after only
> months, which is pretty annoying, but nothing to do much about except
> trying to correct the bookmarks.
> 
> In order to solve the problem in 3) I usually just edit the URL field,
> instead of having to file a new bookmark and do 1) and 2) all over
> again.
> 
> Since all other web browsers out there do allow for customization of the
> URL in bookmarks, one could also argue that there possibly is some level
> of expectation among some user group in being able to do so. Hence, if
> this is not allowed in Epiphany, there should probably be some visible
> instruction (dialog text, tooltip or something like that) with how to
> file a new bookmark in order to correct the location, so as to make sure
> that no user is left in the dust wondering about why they're not allowed
> to edit the location like in other browsers.
> 
> But then again, that seems somewhat backwards as a solution to a fix a
> problem we don't actually know is a problem, as it seems such a fix
> would instead cause more problems (the need for a instruction on how to
> file a new bookmark instead). Perhaps the solution is to have a
> multi-tabbed bookmarks property dialog where the URL field isn't that
> prominently placed, instead of going out of ones way in trying to
> disable editing altogether.

Well I'll acknowledge that there are fringe cases where changing the uri
of a bookmark may be useful. However, without Undo type functionality
this can easily lead to data loss, which imho is unacceptable and I'd
rather we slightly inconvenience users for the fringe cases.


> ¹ Yes, I don't use Epiphany yet. I'm a bad, lazy person. I know.

No your not :)

dave