Re: File dialog (was: Re: First UI component needing replacement.)

[Dylan Griffiths <Dylan_G bigfoot com>]

"James M. Cape" wrote:
> I have updated the file dialog redesign to indicate changes I have since
> made. It is now more like the current dialog (relax, you'll see what I
> mean), and also combines a Nautilus-style view picker. Plus it's also
> much prettier :-)

Not really :-(  There is a distinct lack of keyboard accelerator and resize
hints for the user.  I suspect they do not exist.
 
> [http://developer.gnome.org/gnome-ui/hitsquad/filedialog.html]
> 
> Also, Re: the Cancel-vs-Close discussion, I think that it should be
> Cancel, and undo file operations that were made (as those could be
> considered settings). Of course, user testing is what really needs to
> happen to find out what users expect to happen, and which behavior they
> like better (Cancel & undo or Close & keep).
> 

I prefer that the dialog be NOT used for file operations as much sa
possible.  This is why I have limited it to RENAME and NEW DIRECTORY,
because I can see those two special cases being used enough when saving
files (I know I make new dirs and rename old files to have backups when
saving).  Those can be handled via subdialogs which display the cancel
button and behaviour.  Otherwise, have the dialog do ONE thing and do it
well -- BROWSE FOR FILENAME OR DIRECTORY.

Anything else is NOT Unix, and probably hard to use.

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