Re: Proposal for File-Selection Dialog

["Ian Bicking" <bickiia earlham edu>]

In message Mon, 21 Dec 1998 18:52:51 +0100,
  famrom@ran.es (Guillermo S. Romero / unnamed / Familia Romero)  writes:
>>   You can sort horizontally.  This is annoying.  Or you can do like
>> Windows and scroll horizontally.  I think they made the right choice.
>
> Or you can fix number of columns to avaliable space (two, three...), order
> horizontally and scroll vertically, like reading.
>
> -------------^
> |001 012 043 I
> |080 120 579 I  <- 3 fixed columns, 3 lines visible, vertical scroll
> |Aas Ahg cjh I
> -------------V
> eij hoi mie
> opo rew wae    <- non visible, ready to enter dialog when scrolled
> zzj
>
> If you want 579, you read first column 001, 080, Aas... hey! 080 -> Aas,
> so or it is in between or does no exist (like searching in a dictionary,
> looking sheet corners), so you read 080, 120, 579, found!

Dictionaries are sorted top to bottom, with horizontal scrolling:

Aardvark  Attic     | Bat   Bum  |
Anteater  Austerity | Big   Cap  | (you must flip the page to get here)
Apple     Ball      | Break Cola |


Why sorted vertically?  Because you want to be able to scan as long as
possible for a specific word.  Looking for a range is considerably more
difficult than a specific entry (i.e., it's easier to look for "579" than
some two entries that come before and after 579 [080 and Aas]).

Why scroll horizontally?  You can scan an entire column, then move your
eyes to the next column and continue.  Moving to the next column is a
significant break but it only requires the eyes to change direction.  If
you have vertical scrolling you'd have to physically scroll everytime you
would have otherwise simple shifted to the next column.


If you sort horizontally you can scan at most four or five entries, then you
move your eyes down a row.  This works OK for something that is strictly
serial (like prose) but not for a list of disassociated items (like a file
list).

                              -- Ian