[Nautilus-list] Re: details of the Apple CD Burning user interface

[Darin Adler <darin bentspoon com>]

On Wednesday, March 27, 2002, at 05:38 AM, Calum Benson wrote:

> Tuomas Kuosmanen wrote:
> >         * Once you are done, you want to eject it. So the normal way,
> >           you drag it to the trashcan which, on macosX normally turns
> >           into an Eject symbol if you drag a CD-Rom there. In this case
> >           though, it changes to a "BURN CD!" icon.
>
> Hmm... so as well as bizarrely meaning "eject disk", the trashcan now
> means "burn cd" as well?  And you worked this out without reading the
> user guide?  You need professional help :o)

You misunderstand the feature. And it's understandable if you haven't 
tried it.

When you put in a blank CD-R, it shows up on the desktop. Then you can 
add things to it. When you're ready, you can choose the Burn CD menu 
item.

But if eject the CD without burning it first, it asks you if you want to 
burn the CD. It's kind of like asking whether you want to save a 
document when you close a window. It's not that the "close window" 
command has a second meaning of "save file". It's just that you are 
asked if you want to save when you close. Similarly, you are asked if 
you want to burn when you eject.

I'm not sure that having the icon say "Burn CD" when you drag to the 
trash helps. You are ejecting the CD, and the burning is a side issue. 
Having the icon say "Burn CD" does seem to blur things a bit. But aside 
from this detail, the feature is natural and cleanly integrated.

The first time I personally ran into this (on Mac OS 9, not Mac OS X) 
was last June when someone told me to put some stuff on a CD-R without 
explaining the feature. I was able to do it without any instructions. It 
felt great, like a similar experience I had back in 1984. I had a blank 
floppy in 1984 and I wanted to copy some files from a Macintosh and I 
was worried that I didn't know how to format it. I inserted it, planning 
to search for the "format program", and a dialog appeared, saying, "This 
disk is uninitialized. Do you want to format it?" That's when I decided 
I was wasting time with other kinds of computers.

    -- Darin