Re: [PATCH] Change list-view rename-behaviour

[marten ter borgh <marten terborgh demon nl>]

Roberto Rosselli Del Turco wrote:

> I would have patched it the other way round: what's more intuitive than
> clicking and changing an icon's name? If you click on the *icon* you
> won't be annoyed by the rename option.
>
> Ciao
>

I don't agree. Bug 83552 has lots of good arguments, let me copy+paste them:

1. It is too easy to accidentally initiate a rename when simply trying
to open or launch an item. (This happens here and there for me still)

2. Renaming is a somewhat dangerous operation. We shouldn't make it too
easy, especially with the lack of an undo feature.

3. Creates a behavioral difference between single and double click
modes. Obviously in single click mode this feature will never work.

4. It is inconsistent with the behavior of the icon view.

We have a rename option in the context menu. Making the user explicitly
choose to rename is a much better ui, and prevents them from accidently
renaming files.

(copy+paste ends)

Additionaly, disabling helps fixing some other problems too, for
instance, currently, renaming is activated when you double-click on a
filename, that is quite a nasty bug too, but this patch fixes it.

I don't think it is really that intuitive to click a file if you want to
rename it -- Clicking a file to open or execute it is intuitive, but I
wouldn't directly associate with clicking it. For instance: following
unix click-to-select, it would be intuitive to select a file to copy it
to the 'clipboard'.

Clicking to rename might be convenient for some users, but to most
people it just is an irritating mis-feature.

marten