Re: [PATCH] Context-sensitive paste

[Alex Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Wed, 29 May 2002, Marcello Raffa wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Currently when the user selects the "Paste file"/"Paste files" item of
> the icon view context menu, the clipboard contents are moved/copied in
> the current view, regardless of what is the current selection and
> *where* in the view workspace the user is actually right-clicking to
> open the context menu.
> 
> I think that this behaviour should be corrected to make it
> context-sensitive (see also bug #47946). I've made a small patch
> against nautilus-1.1.18 to fm-directory-view.c which makes nautilus
> behave in the following way (and, I hope, break nothing else):
> 
> 1) when the current selection involves more than one object, the paste
> menu item is accordingly disabled in clipboard_targets_received, since
> we can't assign a meaning to trying to paste to more than one
> destination at once
> 
> 2) when the current selection involves only one object, then pick its
> uri as the destination for the move/copy action and set the paste menu
> item label to "Paste Into" (not sure if "Paste Inside" would be
> better; in bug #76952 "Paste Here" is suggested, but see below); note
> that clipboard_targets_received again disables the paste menu item if
> the selected object is not a directory
> 
> 3) when the current selection is empty, assume that the user wants to
> move/copy the clipboard contents in the current location (which is
> what nautilus is always doing right now) and set the paste menu item
> label to "Paste Here"

I think it could be confusing to users. It's sort of different from the 
common cut and paste meme. Windows does it a bit differently, you only get 
to paste into if you user the context menu on a specific icon, and if you 
use paste from the normal menu it always pastes into the current 
directory. That sounds like a better way, but I'm still not sure I like 
it. 

> 4) the patch also makes a one-line addition in fm-icon-view.c, to
> empty the current selection when the user right-clicks on the
> background of the view workspace instead of right-clicking on one of
> the currently selected objects; this is not strictly needed, but I
> think it's more intuitive and click-saving (right now pasting in the
> current location requires two clicks if the selection is not empty)

This one I don't like at all. Loosing your selection by misstake is 
very irritating, and right clicking on the background is pretty common. 
Not to mention the fact that it is easy to miss an icon by misstake.


-- 
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 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's an immortal bohemian filmmaker trapped in a world he never made. She's a 
bloodthirsty African-American mercenary operating on the wrong side of the 
law. They fight crime!