Re: [Nautilus-list] "not writeable" emblem

[Brian Fahrlander <brian leelumber com>]

Havoc Pennington wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> One thing we currently have in the redhat-outstanding-patches branch
> is to turn off the "not writeable" emblem.
> 
> The main motivation for this is simply that when you have the start
> here, preferences, etc. folders they are really ugly if you have this
> emblem on every icon. In some sense this is a lame reason; but I think
> it has some basis in usability, i.e. if you are looking for
> preferences, it's kind of not really relevant that the thing isn't
> writeable, and it's sort of distracting to have the emblem on
> everything.
> 
> We considered some alternatives to turning the emblem off globally.
> For example, we considered turning it off for files if the folder
> containing the files was unwriteable. i.e. only show the emblem for
> files that were "differently writeable" from the folder. Then you
> might add a "writeable" emblem for the situation where the folder is
> unwriteable and the file is writeable.
> 
> Another idea is to just turn it off for these special folders we
> expect to contain .desktop files.
> 
> Another possibility is to turn it off for any .desktop file.
> 
> Maybe someone has some insight here? I feel like our solution is lame
> but better than having the distracting emblem in the start here
> folders.

    How about a "writeable" flag instead- a little 'thumbprint' that
tells the user this is an item over which he has control?

    I read the usability thing yesterday...they made some very good
points!  We wouldn't need that if we had psychologists on staff...  :)

    Brian
-- 
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Brian Fahrlander                             Linux Zealot, Conservative,
Chicago, IL                                       and reviving Technomad
ICQ 5119262                       http://www.kamakiriad.com/aboutme.html
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