RE: Copy-Paste between filemanager and document editor

[Jorg Rathlev <joerg jrsoftware de>]

> > If you drag a file between locations on the same drive, it moves.
> > If you drag between different drives, it copies.
> > If you drag a program (exe,com,bat), it makes a shortcut.
> >
>
> If I am going to drag a file, I want one un-ambigous operation.  If I have
> to stop and think wether this will move the file, copy the file, link the
> file, etc, then I've already lost whatever advantage is gained and more.
> Make the default action ALWAYS ONE THING, and make the other
> actions ALWAYS
> THE SAME based on the key modifiers.

Yes. It is a nice idea to copy to other drives, while moving on the same
drive. You usually want to move on local drives (your hard disk - most
Windows users have only one partition), while you want to copy to removable
media or remote locations. Unfortunately this becomes nasty if working with
virtual folders (My Documents), or multiple hard disks.

Well, Unix doesn't have disks anyway (i.e. not as top level folders like
Windows), and since the action that is chosen when dragging between
differently mounted folders is totally unpredictable (there's also no visual
hint since drive folders [mountpoints] don't look different by default or
have their own hierarchy level), it should always be the same action.

Given the different preference based on local vs. removable / remote media,
I guess we can argue forever whether copy or move is the most common action
for an average user. I don't even know what my preference would be.

Besides, Windows became even more unpredictable with Windows 2000 (compared
to Win 9x, I don't know about NT 4): Dragging .exe files will usually
move/copy them like any other file. If I try and go into the MS Office
folder and drag excel.exe, it's going to create a shortcut. Dragging
finder.exe (which is in the same folder!) works like any other file.
Winword.exe again creates a shortcut. Might be based on registry entries or
whatever - I have no clue. This *really* sucks.


Jorg