Re: [Usability] Single click directory navigation?

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Sun, 2003-09-14 at 17:20, Gregory Merchan wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2003 at 05:19:45PM +0300, Tuomas Kuosmanen wrote:
> > On Sun, 2003-09-14 at 19:03, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> > > Has the idea of single click directory navigation (click once on a
> > > directory to enter it) ever been considered for the FOSA dialog? This is
> > > used in Deluxe Paint and GQView for example and I like it very much. (I'm
> > > lazy and clicking once is half the job of click twice, right?)
> 
> Not really. Double-clicking comes so naturally to so many that web browsers
> have to ignore the second click. Single-click activation becomes costly
> where selection is desirable.

It's natural because so many places require it where they arguably
shouldn't.

> 
> > > The only drawback I can think of in inconsistency with how lists
> > > usually work. You can not have a directory in the list selected, but
> > > that isn't useful anyway. And double clicking will still function the
> > > same.
> > 
> > Selecting multiple files at once also becomes impossible or hard to do.
> 
> The smalltalk browser widget is a nice way to get single-click and multiple
> selection. It's the widget seen in NeXT and MacOS X with multiple list
> columns.

There's also the point that in most cases where multiple selection is
possible, even with double-click behaviour, you need to use keys
anyhow.  I.e., ctrl-click or shift-click.  Since these are required
*anyhow*, it's doesn't make much sense (to me) to say that double-click
makes multiple selection easier, when in either single or double click
scenarios our UI already mandates keybaord modifiers.

I'd be quite glad if the keyboard modifiers weren't necessary, in
*either* case. ;-)

> 
> However, unlike a tree, multiple selection is limited to a single folder.
> Yet, I think opening multiple files from multiple folders is an 
> `occasionally by few' task.

> 
> Cheers,
> Greg
> 
> P.S. - Magnus, please don't exceed 80 columns when mailing to the list.
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-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.