Re: [Gimp-developer] gimp-developer-list Digest, Vol 24, Issue 20

[Jehan Pagès <jehan marmottard gmail com>]

Hi,

On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 11:07 AM, Paka <ptilopteri gmail com> wrote:
> * Thomas W <twhitmore nz gmail com> [09-15-13 18:51]:
> > Hi Marc, list members,
> >
> > Yes, I encounter awkwardness with the Save dialog & autocomplete
> > triggering. You will also note that 'autocomplete' triggering blocks Enter
> > from actually saving..  it also blocks Alt-S (or whatever Windows shortcut)
> > from working.
> >
> > I'm not a big fan of autocomplete for "Save" -- if I wanted a similar name
> > to an existing file, I'd expect to select the existing file in the list &
> > change the name in the edit field. Since "autocomplete" here interferes
> > strongly with the expected/standard UI, I'd consider the best usability to
> > remove it entirely.

For the usability problem about "should we autocomplete the save
dialog?", I find your saying interesting. Indeed in a
"non-destructive" point of view, I don't think autocomplete is such a
great idea for the save dialog, because in most cases, you don't want
to overwrite an existing file, but create a new name (and in the cases
you do want to overwrite, it is better to have the user write it down
or select it by mouse, so that we prevent too fast "enter-enter-damn
it was the wrong name!" consequences).
Does it make sense to others?

Unfortunately I think we may not have a say in it. I had a fast look
at GTK file chooser dialog API and did not see a function to disable
autocompletion. I may have to check further in GTK code. I don't think
we can add new features in gtk2, but maybe this can be added to gtk3
(then use when we get out GIMP 3, but it means it won't be available
for a bit of course). Anyway if possible, I'd say there should be
intermediate autocompletion types. Like "autocomplete folders, but not
file names" (so we still help users to choose a folder, but don't
direct them to existing file name for saving).
I'd say this is an interesting feature request. Does anyone agree?

> > https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=698481
> >
> > Failing that, "autocomplete" should be reworked so as not to block the
> > dialog's main keybindings. (Perhaps this would be useful for the 'Open'
> > dialog.)
> >
> > Marc, you'd be welcome to add you comment in Bugzilla & hopefully "vote"
> > usability issues a little higher priority. Other people notice this issue?
>
> I don't appear to have the problem on linux.  Perhaps it is a problem
> related to windows.

I don't think I have this problem either on Linux. I may test on my
Windows VM some day later.

Jehan