Re: [Usability] Re: Spatial nautilus - fantastic - but what about the rest?

[Reinout van Schouwen <reinout cs vu nl>]

Hello Jan,

> That's exactly what I wouls mean is not obvious at all. Instead of a
> keypress, followed by entering the name - all without leaving the
> application window or leaving the keyboard - you want the user to leave
> the keyboard, leave the application window (or leave the current work
> context, if talking about applications seems wrong to you), do a
> copy-rename operation, then come back.

First of all leaving the keyboard shouldn't be strictly necessary as we
assume that we have accelerators and a11y all over the place. Second, in a
document-centric context, 'Save as' terminology IMO is out of place. But
I'll admit that some menu option to retrieve a version of the current
document in some format makes sense. As Thorsten already hinted, with a
database-like storage backend, the user doesn't have to know in which
format a document is stored in the first place. But it should be very
easy to retrieve a copy of a document in whatever desired file format.

> functionality, you need to keep in memory before which operation the
> last good state was; "tagging" it with an explicit save removes that
> burden.

I agree, but I see this "tagging" more like a 'Full Backup' as compared to
an 'Incremental Backup' (auto-save, rollback). In other words, the 'Save'
terminology as we understand it now doesn't fully apply here.

> file. I open "Save As", and write the name "MyNiceDocument.doc" and it
> will save it as doc format. I could also choose Word format from the
> drop down list if I want. Easy, clear, quick.

I don't think it is that easy. I always have to point out to people that
they should select MS Word format if they want to take their document to a
windows computer.

> Instead, you want me to exit abiword, find the temporary document, drop

The temp document is most likely in plain sight, since you activated it
from the folder it resides in, and that folder is visible once the abiword
window is hidden.

> it onto a panel applet (which I need to have running - which means I
> need to have a panel at all times),

We can't support all possible non-standard setups. Ppeople who want to use
Sawfish instead of Metacity are on their own as well. But again, I can see
the value of a menu item that says 'give me a version of this document in
xyz format'.

> switch to selectively turn them on or off. And I'm not entirely sure I
> like the idea of having significant interface shear between my desktop
> and laptop, for the same OS and desktop version.

Hard drives with moving parts will die off slowly in favor of solid state
memory. Current hardware limitations of some users shouldn't prevent us
from discussing the situation where we want to be in a number of years.

regards,

-- 
Reinout van Schouwen			Artificial Intelligence student
email: reinout cs vu nl			mobile phone: +31-6-44360778
	Against Software Patents in the EU - swpat.ffii.org