Re: UI Rantings [was: Re: gmc and file-selection mockups]

[Gleef <dzol virtual-yellow com>]

On Tue, 29 Dec 1998, Tuomas J. Lukka wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Dec 1998, James M. Cape wrote:
> > > 
> > > Ok, then should there be context sensitive menu's associated with files
> > > at all?
> > 
> > >From the Open/Save Dialogs? Not in my opinion. A redesign of them is
> > inevitable to deal with things like sort methods, date/time displays,
> > etc. I just want to make sure it doesn't get blown way out of
> > proportion. :-)
> 
> How about just making the file manager be the open dialog, if it
> is running? Opening a file would be a drag-drop operation and there
> would be no problem of creeping featuritis in open dialogs because
> all the stuff would be there already.

There's two problems with that.  First, a well designed open dialog will
be (by definition) faster and have a smaller memory footprint than an
entire file manager.  Given that GNOME's file manager is the very
feature-rich gmc, this is especially the case.

Second, a file manager offers the user a dizzying array of choices, most
of which are completely irrelevant to the process of opening a file.  New
users can be intimidated by such choices.  Some power users might like
such power availiable inside a dialog, but many (me included) would never
use more than a small handful of these features (eg. rename), and will
happily go to a different venue for the rest (eg. print).

IMHO, the file manager and the open/save dialogs should be different.  The
Open and Save dialiogs might share code between themselves, but they 
should be visually distinct enough so it's clear at a quick glance which
one you are looking at.  The dialogs should have a limited feature set
that is focused on the task at hand (Opening or Saving) and perhaps a few
small tangential tasks that one might discover are needed during the
process of opening or saving (eg. renaming, deleting, adding a directory).

Of course, your mileage may vary :-).

-Gleef