GTK file open dialog usability...

[alex halogen-dg com]

Hello,

I specifically subscribed to developers mailing list to tell that
I absolutely dislike new File Open dialog which has been implemented
some time ago. I find it very misleading, and unusable, and I do
not understand how this thing even happen to Linux. I always
felt that Linux is very good for developers - for people which are
able to type things on keyboard. New file open dialog makes it
almost impossible to type file name in.

I always thought that Linux is superior to Windows in matter of usability.
But new GTK based applications file dialog always makes me
absolutely lost.

Is there any way how we can get old file open back? I really, really want
it back.

I will explain why I dislike new approach:

1. For example I want to select file from /usr/bin. I type:
  /u and '/usr' appears. As new user I type 'u' and then 's'
  and get '/usr/src' instead of '/us'. OK, thats bad, but fixable.
  I go back and remove all the line, starting over.

2. When I type '/u' 'b' and then 'ooc' I get '/usr/bin/oocalc2' finally
   selected. But pressing enter returns error: '/usr/bin/ooc file not
   found'.

I have made a page with images to explain what I mean:
http://www.halogen-dg.com/alex/file_selection_dialog/GtkFileOpenBadUsabilityHtml

Anyone else finds file open dialog frustating? Any way I can get
old file dialog back?

--
Alex V. Koval
http://www.halogen-dg.com/
http://www.zwarehouse.org/