Re: Usability of the GTK+ 2 file open dialog

[Michael Torrie <torriem chem byu edu>]

On Sat, 2006-03-25 at 23:21 +0200, Dov Grobgeld wrote:
> Actually, for me at least the annoyance level is too high. I often
> have lots of files in a directory and not being able to search for or
> filter them easily is one of the things that is really bothering me. I
> wrote a small enhancement request to bugzilla:
> 
>    http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=334100
> 
> to add a firefox like search bar. But with all the complaints I've
> seen of the current FileChooser, that may just solve part of the
> problem.

Searching seems to be in vogue these days, so I'm sure some kind of
integrated searching, optionally accessing sources like beagle, will be
added, so long as there aren't a lot of dependencies created.

> 
> I feel that one of the real problems with the current design is that
> there is no natural place to add additional functionality. Consider
> e.g. the right mouse button click for turning on hidden files. It is
> really a hack!

Agreed, however...

> 
> One possible way of solving that in a meta-way would be to add a
> menubar on top of the filedialog. By having contents similar to the
> following:

I am really not sure that from a usability standpoint a menu should be
added to the dialog box.  In fact I'm sure it would cause a lot of
confusion.  Except for View and Search functions (both of which might be
best represented by a button or something small), everything here is
already readily accessible from the dialog.  That's my opinion anyway.

I'll have to play around with current selector and document some of the
specific things that annoy me.

Michael

>    Go:
>       Location - Ctrl-L
>       Home directory
>    Bookmarks:
>       Add bookmark
>       Bookmarks:
>    View:
>       [x] Hidden directories
>       [x] Size
>    Search:
>       Find
>       Filter
> 
> (the exact details would have to be worked out). That would open a
> whole new dimension for extension.
> 
> I don't believe that that kind of options is confusing for a newbie.
> After all, they manage to use a browser, that has functionality
> similator to the above.(And at least in firefox we power users can
> always do About::config and turn on almost anything).
> 
> Right now, I feel that functionality is just too crippled.
> 
> Just my thoughts.
> 
> Regards,
> Dov
> 
> On 3/25/06, Michael Torrie <torriem chem byu edu> wrote:
> > On Sat, 2006-03-25 at 16:33 +0000, Nate Nielsen wrote:
> >
> > > A poor assumption. The people who are happy won't be complaining on a
> > > mailing list. gtk-list must have hundreds of subscribers, we could just
> > > as easily assume that all but 10 or so are 'okay' with things.
> >
> > To assume that the silent majority are happy with things is an equally
> > poor assumption.  And even further to assume that the majority of gnome
> > users (who aren't on the list and just use arbitrary distros) are happy
> > with things because one cannot hear their complaints is probably not
> > correct.
> >
> > I'd say that the file selector is just good enough that it works for
> > most people (it does let people save and open files!), even if it
> > happens to annoy them.  The annoyance level is just not high enough to
> > really effect any kind of massive rethink or relook (I fall into this
> > category; I would hack the code if I was annoyed sufficiently).  Windows
> > annoys most people frequently yet they still use it.
> > >
> > > That said, this thread had some good results. A few good points were
> > > brought up, and agreed upon. I'm sure when those are implemented, the
> > > file selector will be that much better.
> >
> > Agreed.
> > > Cheers,
> > > Nate
> > >
> > >
> > >
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