Re: Proposal for File-Selection Dialog

[famrom ran es (Guillermo S. Romero / unnamed / Familia Romero)]

>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]).

Maybe cos definitions need diferent areas. So the best thing is one, two or
three columns per page.

>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.

It is a top -> bottom -> top -> bottom -> ... movement, and when directory
is full, it means a lot. The taller the window, the longer the wasted eye
movement.

>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).

Funny, I have been rechecking Win ways... it has four modes:
- big icons, sorted left -> right -> next line, vertical scroll
- small icons, sorted left -> right -> next line, vertical scroll
- list, sorted top -> bottom -> next column, horizontal scroll
- list with aditional info, sorted top -> bottom, vertical scroll

In icon (big or small) mode you can place icons where you want, but it is
not recomendable (IMHO, cos then alphabet order means nothing, and relation
order is not very useful, specially with lot of files).

The only that scroll horizontally is the simple list. So if you keep icons
in default places, list and small icons are equivalent, where one goes left
-> right, the other goes top -> down.

Do not ask me why, but I am still faster | happier | more comfortable in
small icon or list with info than in big icon (for me, a waste of space) or
list.

I will ask other guys about this four options.

GSR