Re: [Usability]User Object Simplification?

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Mon, 2003-02-17 at 15:52, Per Cederberg wrote:
> Reinout van Schouwen wrote:
> > On section 3.2, Links versus Real Objects:
> > 
> > Association of object deletion with the removal of programs will require
> > interaction with the tools the distro vendor supplies for that purpose. Of
> > course, we could think about an approach where dragging a launcher to the
> > Trash opens $GNORPM and trashing a data file just does the usual thing...
> > not sure if this inconsistency offsets the usability gain though.
> 
> It doesn't necessarily have to be complex to remove an
> application. A simple solution (i.e. how Windows used to
> work), would be to register a "uninstall command" when
> the application is installed. Each distro would then be
> free to register its own commands. An uninstall would
> only be a question of su-ing and exec-ing.

This is really get out of scope for GNOME, I think, and into "vendor
land."  Application installation/removal for most Linux/UNIX's using
packages doesn't make this at all something GNOME can expect to do and
do right.  Independent vendor tools are an absolute must (since each OS
packages things differently - breaking a single app across several
packages, like Debian tends to do, or bundling multiple apps into one
packages, like source-based distros will).

> 
> But then again, nice integration and progress bars
> wouldn't be guaranteed... :-(
> 
> > Between "links" and "real objects" there is I the "shadows" concept from
> > IBM's Workplace Shell (the win95 shortcuts were a bad attempt to copy
> > this). A shadow is a representation of the real object, with the same
> > context menu etc. A change to a shadow is a change to the real object and
> > vice versa. Except that deleting a shadow doesn't delete the real object.
> > Shadows could be identified by a different color/style of their icon
> > title. IMO shadows are preferable above "links to an executable".
> 
> Ah! Me likes this idea. Seems like a nice improvement to
> the current launchers.
> 
> /Per
> 
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