Re: [PATCH] Allow to remove computer, home folder, trash from desktop by dragging them to trash

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Wed, 2005-07-13 at 14:49 +0200, Christian Neumair wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, den 13.07.2005, 14:36 +0200 schrieb Alexander Larsson:
> > On Wed, 2005-07-13 at 14:14 +0200, Christian Neumair wrote:
> > > Am Mittwoch, den 13.07.2005, 14:11 +0200 schrieb Alexander Larsson:
> > > > On Tue, 2005-07-12 at 23:22 +0200, Christian Neumair wrote:
> > > > > From bug 155771 [1]:
> > > > > 
> > > > > "Removal of computer/desktop/trash icons from desktop unintuitive
> > > > > 
> > > > > For example: Removing the Wastebasket/Trash icon. The only reason I
> > > > > managed to find out how to get rid of it was looking at bugzilla."
> > > > > 
> > > > > Note that I'm strduping the name of the desktop items instead of using
> > > > > predefined names like "Trash", "Computer" or "Home" because people
> > > > > complained in bugzilla that if they name their trash foobar it should be
> > > > > referred to as foobar elsewhere.
> > > > > 
> > > > > [1] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155771
> > > > 
> > > > The problem here is that this is an immutable operation. There is no way
> > > > to undo this without using gconf. One way operations like that are not
> > > > very nice.
> > > 
> > > I don't quiet get why you keep disputing with our usability crew. I
> > > don't say Alan is godlike. But he understands way more from usability
> > > than we do, just like you understand way more from programming and
> > > project organization than I do.
> > 
> > You used to be able to delete the icons, but we got bug reports that
> > this was confusing, so it was removed. I'm sure we can find usability
> > experts who argue both ways.

> So the trash shouldn't be sensitive if the selection contains the home
> or the computer icon, right? Or should we display a dialog with
> instructions on how to remove them?

Btw. It seems like alan even agrees with me:

 We cannot do this until we have a clear way of adding the icon back
 later, it is safer to keep the icon permanent otherwise we risk
 creating a flood of Helpdesk questions about "how do I get my trash
 back?".  

So, this whole thing is really about how important it is to have visible
settings for which "magic" desktop icons to show. 

Using delete for this might be a bit scary for people. Does delete of
the home dir icon delete your whole home directory or just the link? I
think even if we had the settings visible in the ui we might not want to
use delete to mean disable showing the icon.

Right now we do nothing for these icons on delete. Should we display a
dialog? I dunno really. I think as long as we keep the settings hidden
we should not try to describe how to enable them ("open up
gconf-editor..." is a pretty bad text for a dialog).

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a scrappy gay ex-con with a winning smile and a way with the ladies. 
She's a strong-willed green-skinned traffic cop who dreams of becoming Elvis. 
They fight crime!