Re: [Usability] Thoughts about the file chooser

[Leonardo Santagada <santagada gmail com>]

  Radical changes are nice but they have to be planed and well
executed if you want it to work. Responding to not using mouse for
drag and drop, I don't use the acessibilyties tools of gnome but in
windows you can transform your number pad into a mouse and te buttons
stick so it is easy to do drag&drop operations.
  About the cli propose. If we are working on a full desktop you
shouldn't be worring with people who use cli, if they want they can
use other software to do their work, we can't make every user in the
world happy.
  I personaly think that the save button it an old concept from the
time that saving to floppy disks was the only way to store information
and it was really slow. Today I think the computer should always be
saving the user work. Drag and drop is a clean metaphor and if you
want to see it working nicely you should test rox
(http://rox.sourceforge.net/).


On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 03:15:15 +0100 (IST), Alan Horkan
<horkana maths tcd ie> wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 25 Sep 2004, Dave Ahlswede wrote:
> 
> > Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 21:55:24 -0400
> > From: Dave Ahlswede <mightyquinn charter net>
> > Reply-To: mightyquinn letterboxes org
> > To: Maurizio Colucci <seguso forever tin it>
> > Cc: usability gnome org
> > Subject: Re: [Usability] Thoughts about the file chooser
> >
> > On Sun, 2004-09-26 at 03:13 +0200, Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> > > I was wondering: have you thought about replacing the whole file dialog
> > > with a single "drag files here" widget, or some kind of file list where
> > > you can drag the files to?
> 
> Why not drag the files you want opened right into the application window?
> 
> I know some people want to entirely get rid of the File Chooser and make
> Nautilus, Drag and Drop and Auto Save work better but as a former Mac and
> Windows user I'm concerned about the File Chooser being removed before all
> the necessary replacements are in place and properly tested.  Look at how
> much fuss there was over switching to the new file chooser before type
> ahead find was added and other details were sorted out.  Getting rid of
> the file chooser entirely would take even more careful planning.
> 
> > > This could make sense if your priority is to offer a minimal interface,
> > > with no duplication of functionality. And would solve the problem where
> > > the application asks for a file, but you already have the file visible
> > > in another file manager (be it nautilus or not).
> 
> I think a certain amount of duplication will be inevitable if we are to
> support some users wanting to use only a keyboard and others wanting to
> use only a mouse.
> 
> > > If dragging is too difficult, Gnome could provide a "send to"
> 
> In some cases dragging is extremely difficult.
> Try using drag and without using your mouse.
> Or try without using your hands, ever broken or injured your arms or
> hands?
> 
> > > functionality (e.g. right-click file, the context menu opens, select
> > > "send to window", a window list opens, select the file chooser window).
> > > I implemented something like that in http://onefinger.sf.net.
> 
> I dont think we ever want to make anything accessible only from right click.
> Context (a.k.a. right click) menus are difficult, beginners dont
> necessarily realise how to use them or even that they are available.
> 
> > I believe this has been discussed a couple times in the past-- my
> > personal feeling is that, while the FileChooser should be a viable drog-
> > drop target for files, we shouldn't get rid of its browsing
> > functionality.
> 
> I would really like to see the alternatives much more developed before the
> file chooser is radically changed or removed.
> 
> Sincerely
> 
> Alan Horkan
> 
> http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
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> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Leonardo Santagada

"But hey, the fact that I have better taste than anybody else in the
universe is just something I have to live with. It's not easy being
me."
-- Linus Torvalds.