Re: [PATCH] Fix two warning dialogs

[Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Alexander Larsson wrote:
>...
> I think the drag to trash/delete volume to eject it is stupid. If you
> look around you'll see all sorts references to how silly and
> undiscoverable people think this is on mac.

"On the other hand, a waste basket should not be used for anything other
than holding discarded files. It should not be used, for example, to
eject a removable disk such as a floppy or CD."
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/principles-match.html>

But wait, there's more! ...

> Apple even added a hack on OSX where they turn the trash into an eject
> button when you start dragging a mounted volume!
> 
> Furthermore, this is not in any way how we do things in Gnome. All
> context specific operations like these are done in the context menu,
>...

... "Be aware that popup menus are used primarily by intermediate and
advanced users. Even some users who have used graphical desktops for
many years do not know about popup menus until somebody shows them ...
Since the user may not be aware of their presence, do not provide
functions that are only accessible from popup menus unless you are
confident that your target users will know how to use popup menus."
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/menus-types.html#menu-type-popup>

So if Nautilus isn't going to support dragging disks to the Trash,
that's all well and good, but what is it going to support instead? An
item in the popup menu isn't sufficient -- especially for the people
most likely to try dragging to the Trash in the first place, that is,
people coming from the Mac, because they're even less likely to be
familiar with contextual menus than everyone else.

But wait, there's even more! Telling these Mac refugees "please use
'Eject' in the popup menu of the volume" won't work, because on the Mac
the term "pop-up menu" is used to refer to an option menu
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGControls/chapter_18_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000957-TP30000359-TPXREF132>,
and a Nautilus disk icon doesn't *have* an option menu.

This was most recently discussed on usability@ a couple of months ago
<http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2005-May/thread.html#00025>.
My suggestion was a small Eject button in the corner of each disk's icon
<http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2005-May/msg00028.html>.

-- 
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/