[Usability] Launcher Dialogs



Hey all,

I'm trying to work out how to simplify/fix the launcher
properties/creation dialog(s), and there are a few things that I would
like opinions on.

* The advanced tab should die. It only contains options that are useful
to developers, who don't use this dialog anyway. I really don't think
that users are creating launchers that are fully translated and with
documentation and "Try this before using", whatever that is.

* It's not immediately obvious why one would want to "Comment" on a
launcher. I don't know how users are going to work out that this if for
the tooltip, or if they would ever even want to add a tooltip...

* "Generic Name" - I'm not sure what this is or where is shows up in the
UI, which mean that it probably needs to be removed or rethought.

* "Type" - I can only make "Application" and "Link" do anything useful,
and these two could conceivably be merged by using gnome-vfs-url-show.
As such I think we can probably get rid of this. Links to devices and
network shares should be created elswhere.

* "Command" - This input obviously has to stay, but if we use
gnome-vfs-url-show that what do we label it as. In that case a launcher
could be for a uri, application, file or folder[1]. This brings up the
question of whether we want to throw all this together into one "object"
- the launcher. Nautilus can already create shortcuts using symbolic
links,but these can't be easily used on the panel atm.

* "Run in Terminal" - this is useful, but doesn't actually seem to work

-----------

Editing Launchers:

* Right now one can only edit a launcher on the panel, in the menus or
in applications:// . Nautilus needs to  be able to edit launchers, but
it should do it in the same way as the panels. Having an "Edit Launcher"
context menu item in nautilus really sucks, so I'd vote for adding a
"Properties" item to the panel's launcher context menu and removing the
"Edit Launcher" item.

Anyway, there is a lot of stuff that needs fixing and rethinking, be we
shouldn't put of fixing some of the easier fixed issues just because
there are also some less easily fixed issues. Even removing superflous
fields and "Types" that don't make any sense would be a big improvment
for 2.5


[1] Folders depend on http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=115726

-- 
Mark Finlay 
Computer Science Student

E-Mail:	sisob_AT_tuxfamily_DOT_org
Jabber:	sisob_AT_jabber_DOT_org
Blog:	http://sisob.tuxfamily.org
 	http://advogato.org/person/sisob




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