On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 18:26:46 +1100, Jeff Waugh wrote: > Jump into a GNOME file dialogue some time and just type a filename. :-) We > didn't get this 100% right when it first shipped, which was disappointing, > but it's top stuff now. Sadly, it's not there yet. I really wish I could just type a filename, but a magic keypress (Ctrl-L) must be used for anything close to reliable filename typing is possible: Bug 136541: poor discoverability of text entry box in filechooser open dialog impairs accessibility http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=136541 Yes, more recently, it works to "just type" an absolute filename as an initial press of / pops up the magic missing filename entry. But what persona is this designed for where any immediate child of / is a common thing to want to type? I most often want to find stuff in my home directory, but I can't "just type" ~ to find things there: Bug 153213: "~" should bring up the location dialog http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153213 Even if that worked, it still wouldn't work for typing a relative filename based on the current directory, (which must be a typical desire in the designed-for case else why bring up that current directory in the dialog). In this case, typing brings up an an entirely separate, and more mystic text entry. I'm told it's the "treeview typeahead" feature, and I had always assumed it was available in the file open dialog by accident. But apparently it's known as "interactive search" here. It doesn't support "just type a filename" since it doesn't allow / as a directory separator: Bug 305385: Interactive search should use "/" to go into subfolder http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305385 Additionally that entry doesn't support tab-completion at all. Personally, when I say I wish I could "just type a filename" I really mean that I want good tab-completion too. But it's effectually turned off for the "file save" dialog anyway: Bug 314873: Auto-completion should work when the cursor is in the middle of a path http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314873 I don't know if the file open/save dialogs were intentionally designed to exclude someone like me, but I'm certainly happier when I can avoid using them. (And I am also happy that Federico seems willing to try to fix all of this, but it is hard to understand how it got to this point.) The fear of exposing / as a separator is the most bewildering design aspect to me personally. I'm certainly glad that the designers of firefox didn't see fit to replace each /-separated component of every URL with individual buttons. -Carl PS. These side threads are entertaining, but I do hope we also get back to Till's original list and we can all work together on designing a good print dialog.
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