Re: [Usability] FOSA ideas

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, Krzysztof Foltman wrote:

> > These are definitely needed, I think (back is useful, and "up" should
> > *never* be the .. directory entry),
>
> But shouldn't it be a directory entry ? (not necessarily named "..")
>
> Why ?
>
> 1. It's been widely used in Norton Commander and its clones, and was/is

The idea that the world was flat used to be popular too.

.. is not descriptive, not intuative and it is a damned small target to
hit even if the actual target areas is more like
[..                                            ]
the perception is that the .. is the target.

The location bar should be able to understand
.
..
and if you hit return they should go refresh and go up a directory
respectivley rather than some of the bad behaviour we have seen before (of
course I dont want to create a file called '.'!)

Backspace could be used inside the folder list widget to go up a
directory, this would/should be consistant with Nautilus (and windows
Explorer).

> 2. If it's the first item on the list, it's quickly accessible via the
> keyboard without having to find/learn a new shortcut (Backspace for
> "parent directory" would be less keypresses, but harder to find without
> reading the docs

An 'Up' arrow or some sort of button would definately be required to
replace .. I dont think anyone has suggested otherwise, at least I hope
not.  Hopefully the buttons will be right at the top of the dialog and
have text labels on them.

The File Open Save As Dialog is suprising complicated but that is because
it si so frequently used and such a fundamental part of the desktop and
that is why it is so important to get it right and not rush into anything.

I am so glad that so many people are willing to put a whole lot of thought
into this.  I really think we can come up with something that will please
most of the people most of the time.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/