Re: [Usability] Thoughts about the file chooser

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

sorry for the late reply, i didn't notice this message before

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, Leonardo Santagada wrote:

> Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 14:07:38 +0000
> From: Leonardo Santagada <santagada gmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Thoughts about the file chooser
>
> The filechooser is only staying while we don't do anything better than
> it. I think one solution might be click&drop,

I'm not buying it.

To have consistant drag and drop would be a great addition but I dont
think it will remove the need to have a more accessible solution and that
solution is the File Chooser, in particular the location text entry.

Note that the Mac provides the location text entry as the default file
chooser.  It makes sense that if you have a file manager that will
reliably open your documents in the application you want [1] and a good
working drag and drop system [2] then there should only be rare need for
the file chooser [3].


[1] if you have more than one graphics application, even with just a
single picture viewer (or preview) and only one picture editor it might be
difficult to provide a system that gets it exactly right.

[2] allows you to make sure the documents gets opened in the correct
application.

[3] if you are using a file manager or click and drop, applications may
not necessarily detect the file type correctly.   Even if the file
manager
is using the slower file magic rather than file extension it is not always
perfect.  In the case of drag and drop an application needs only figure
out which of the available file types (even something as simple as 'text'
is many types when you start considering encodings).

Although not necessarily the easiest the most reliable way of opening a
file will continue to be to open it with the file chooser having specified
exactly what type it is and options it might need.   With any luck this
will become less and less necessary but it is not going to completely
replace the file chooser.

Users with accessibility devices and those who are simply more adept with
the keyboard will not want to get rid of the fill chooser.  (And it is a
failure of a Desktop Enviroment if you have to tell people to use the
commadn line instead so dont even suggest it).

> you click in the icon (with right or middle mouse button) and the mouse
> pointer become a container for the document (maybe it can even be
> integrated with tranfer area). Then you find where you want to drop your
> doc and you click with the same mouse button. Then if you integrate with
> tranfer area you can do it also with ctrl+c ctrl+v, and saving a file
> will be as easy and acessible as using nautilus. People will only need
> to learn how to use nautilus and the application, no more save dialogs
> that work diferent than a full file browser.

Your suggestions are all pretty good improvements but none of them are
reason enought to get rid of the file chooser.


Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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