Re: Usability of the GTK+ 2 file open dialog

[Daniel Kasak <dkasak nusconsulting com au>]

Michael L Torrie wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-03-08 at 10:20 +1100, Daniel Kasak wrote:
>   
> > I'm not so sure about this. I can understand people wanting to have the 
> > *option* of overriding the Gtk2 File Open dialog with a native windows 
> > one, but I personally prefer the Gtk2 dialog - apart from it currently 
> > now knowing about special locations such as 'My Documents', etc. 
> > Admittedly, I don't insist on using the keyboard, so I can't comment on 
> > how keyboard-friendly it is.
> >
> > Having the Gtk2 dialog available on all platforms makes writing 
> > cross-platform apps a lot easier. It just means I don't have to be as 
> > paranoid about testing everything on every platform.
> >     
>
> I recall similar arguments about Java swing. They argued that having a
> consistent UI for one application across all platforms was more
> important than have an app that acted in a consistent way with apps on
> any given platform.  I think most people would now agree that the latter
> is more important to most end users than the former, which is why we
> have the WIMP theme, and Java Swing now looks as close to win32 as it
> can on windows.
>   
There's a big difference between having gtk+ themes to look more like 
windows, and replacing gtk+ functionality with Windows functionality. 
The argument for having consistent functionality across all platforms is 
still the winner for me. If people want to theme gtk+ - including the 
dreaded File Open dialog - to look more like Windows, then great. But 
arguing to have different functionality on different platforms just 
because you happen to like the Windows File Open dialog more than gtk's 
is backwards. If people are so discontent with the gtk+ dialog, then 
they have 2 options: a) Fix the damned thing, b) Stop using gtk+ and 
start using native windows widgets. Of course, if you want to develop 
cross-platform apps, then option b) is out of the question, isn't it?

As for what 'most people' want - a large majority of people want the 
latest version of Windows XP, MS Office, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and 
WinAmp. That doesn't stop those who know better from developing Linux, 
OpenOffice, Firefox, Evolution and xmms. Try these apps out on 'most 
people' and they will completely freak out. The point is that I would 
hope that people using gtk+ are trying to push the envelope a bit, and 
not cater for the lowest common denominator. I think if people are at 
the point where a gtk+ File Open dialog is too mind-blowingly different 
to what they expect, then the rest of gtk+ will be too.
> The GTK2 dialog, as it currently stands and is used by apps, cannot be
> replaced cleanly by the win32 dialog boxes anyway (or by KDE dialog
> boxes when using KDE integration) under all circumstances without
> sacrificing some functionality,
Exactly.

--
Daniel Kasak
IT Developer
NUS Consulting Group
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