Re: [HIG] HIG comments on files and consistency

[Matthew Thomas <mpt mailandnews com>]

Florent de Dinechin wrote:
>...
> Let me explain. In RISC OS, the standard save dialog which was used by
> all applications, showed
> 
> 1/ a filename, (with possibly a path, with possibly a file hierarchy
> navigation utility as we have in Gnome), and
> 
> 2/ an icon of the file to save, which could be dragged to any filer
> (gmc/nautilus) window. You could also drag this icon to any window
> able to receive this type of file.
>...

I haven't seen this for myself, but I have had RISC OS users rave to me
about how wonderful it was. Such an interface would be a major usability
win, because it would remove the need to have filepickers at all; no
longer would we have the odd situation where folders are shown using one
interface in the file manager (a folder window), and a different
interface when opening or saving within a program (a filepicker). It
would, however, put pressure on the file manager to be fast and have
plenty of keyboard shortcuts for navigating through folders. :-)

The killer, however, is that it wouldn't be very accessible. Drag and
drop is typically an alternative method of carrying out functions, not
the sole method, because it can't be performed by keyboard-bound users.
So you'd need some kind of understandable keyboard shortcuts to pick up
the icon and put it down in the folder you wanted.

-- 
Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla UI Design component default assignee thing
<http://mozilla.org/>