Re: [Usability] Launcher Dialogs



> 
> > * 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.
> Exactly. Who changes translations using this interface? I bet nobody
> does it.

Translations for shipped launchers are generated automatically from po
files, as I'm sure we all know :)

> > * 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...
> Inside the .desktop file, this really represents the comment.
> "Tooltip" would be a bit confusing since tooltips on panel launchers
> show "<Name>\n<Comment>". You may want to call it "Description" or
> "Details".

Hmmm, well done the user want to edit/create comments for launchers?


> > * "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.
> According to the freedesktop.org desktop entry spec [1], the generic
> name in fact HAS a function although we (GNOME) currently don't use it.

Hmmm, I must read up on that. Even if we the developers of gnome do end
up using it, i wonder if the user will ever want to.

> > * "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.
> No, I don't think so. Right-click a GNOME menu item -> "entire menu" ->
> "properties" - it will display "directory" as "Type". Refer to [1]
> ("There are 4 types of desktop entries: Application(1), Link(2),
> FSDevice(3) and Directory(4)."). IMHO these should just be synced up
> with GNOME's types.

Strange, I see Application, Link, FSDevice, MIME Type, Service, Service
Type with Gnome2.4 on fedora. I only see directory when I go to 'GNOME
menu item -> "entire menu" -> "properties" '.

Anyway, yeah. Type needs to be cleaned up or removed.

> > * "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.
> We should stick to fd.org's specs (see above).




> > * "Run in Terminal" - this is useful, but doesn't actually seem to work
> This works - but only for terminal applications like links or dselect.

I wonder can we automatically detect when a program "needs" a terminal

> > 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.
> Uhm I don't know exactly what you mean. The panel's launcher context
> menu HAS a "Properties" item.
> I use stock GNOME and Nautilus indeed doesn't offer any way to edit
> launchers. Unfortunately we can't simply remove the "Properties" item
> since we need some place to display the file's properties. Instead, we
> should IMHO add a tab to the property dialog called "Launcher"
> containing the launcher's properties.
> Maybe I got you wrong here.

Sorry, I made a mistake, and/or wasn't very clear. To try again:

* Right now launchers on the panel have a properties item which is liked
to the standard launcher dialog.

* Launchers on the desktop have a normal file properties dialog except
that the name field is the name of the launcher not the file.

* The general response to "I can't edit my launchers on the desktop" is
"we're going to add a 'Launcher' tab to the file properties dialog". The
problem with this is that we end up with inconsistency with what the
user sees when they go to the properties for a launcher on the desktop
v's the properties of a launcher on the panel.


> [1]
> http://freedesktop.org/Standards/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-0.9.4.html

I must read this...

-- 
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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