Re: [Usability] The eternal fileselector dilemma :)

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004, Lemmit Kaplinski wrote:

> Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 21:13:56 +0300
> From: Lemmit Kaplinski <lemmit kaplinski com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] The eternal fileselector dilemma :)
>
> Hi,
>
> BTW - is it the custom here to CC the author every time?

Yes, there are many people who post to the list but are not subscribed.
(I've not CC'ed you this time).

> >Bookmarks are for the _most commonly_ used locations. It's only
> >natural that they don't "cover all possible situations".

If we had a location bar instead of Breadcrumbs you could dynamically
include the recently viisted locations as a dropdown.  (dammit I'll need
to do a mockup fast as I can).

> Those were partly added for effect, you are right. But I have proven, as
> best as I can, that the area devoted to the filechooser is ridiculously
> small. Once you have clicked the triangle, you most probably want to use
> the browser. Have a look at this screenshot:
> http://bugs.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=28031&action=view No comments.

I have a conspiracy theory that the new file chooser is just the first
stage in a campaign to kill off the file chooser entirely!  Various
people have open stated their opinion that the file chooser is nothing
more than a throwback to the days without multitasking but I dont think
things are really that simple.


> >possible. The duplication of bookmarks is due to this very same
> >reason, and thus neccessary. Furthermore, any changes to the layout of

> You lost me here. Ae you saying that the dialog expands horizontally
> (bad) in order to facilitate the duplicate bookmarks list (worse).
> Sorry, I do not get it.

Dynamically rearranging the dialog and having the existing widget
disappear would not have been a good thing.  I do wonder why it was
greyed out though, there wouldn't have been much harm leaving it enabled,
the connection between it and the Bookmarks widget is not necessarily
obvious.

> I am still a little scared of the bugzilla (I am somewhat arachnophobic
> and a creature that catches and collect various bugs is regarded with
> great suspicion from my end), could someone file a bugreport :) Oh well,
> I'll try doing it myself

> >I think this is one of those complaints that arise from the fact that
> >if you use spatial stuff, you won't like it when you have to navigate
> >down a hirearchy. It's just a no-no. The good news is that if you
> >adjust yourself to the spatial way, you won't need to navigate
> >regularly.

> I use the spatial stuff. I have used Mac OS (and before that Amiga) for
> a long-long time and for me, a Desktop is naturally spatial. I was

Spatial is growing on me too.  When I'm not dealing with deep hierachies
(rummaging through a tarball I've just unzipped) I do prefer spatial it is
a lot easier for simple tasks.

No matter how good spatial gets it doesn't really have much to do
with the File chooser.

> delighted when Nautilus started supporting it. Nevertheless I like
> navigating down my folder structure. I also navigate down my drawers,
> binders and other real-world desktop equipment. Spatial is just knowing
> that the file is where you put it (I won't talk about the
> metadata-powered search in this thread).

Beagle looks set to be great, if only they can do something that solve the
problem of getting relevant metadata added to the files.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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