Re: [Usability] Nautilus: Overwrite Existing File/Folder Dialog Buttons

[Jason Hoover <jasonhoover verizon net>]

On Fri, 2005-06-03 at 23:35 +1200, Matthew Thomas wrote:
> >...
> > But for now, I think it is better to just polish the conflict
> > dialog. Do you think that it is reasonable to put 5 response buttons
> > into 1 dialog? If yes, what would be the preferred order? I've come to
> > the conclusion that
> > 
> > Replace All, Skip All, Skip, Cancel, Replace
> > 
> > could be quiet appropriate. What's your opinion?
> 
> I think that's too many. In what case is "Skip" or "Skip All" ever 
> useful? I can't think of one -- except where you've added files to one 
> version of a folder, and then use that version to overwrite another 
> version. 

Not quite. I've come across a few instances where I've wanted to merge a
large collection of files together (such as digital camera images,
filenames on a similar topic, etc) but not actually overwrite them. 

> But for that you should be using a proper Synchronize command, 
> not a Move or Copy, because you might have deleted stuff deliberately 
> from the local folder too, and you want that deletion repeated on the 
> other version.

Has anyone ever seen someone use an MS briefcase? Ever? Anyone?

Though, I must admit, such a function in nautilus would be cute.

> Once pre-flighting is implemented, "Replace" and "Replace All" can also 
> be merged into "Replace". For example: 'Items with all the same names 
> already exist in "Bar". Do you want to replace them with the ones you're 
> moving?" And: 'Some items with the same names (including "Foo") already 
> exist in "Bar". Do you want to replace them with the ones you're 
> moving?' And so on.

As a rule of thumb, coercing the user into making blanket decisions can
be as dangerous as making assumptions for them. Forgive me if I'm
mis-reading this.

Imagine a user has three files, edits one on a floppy, and one at home.
They goes to copy the files (as their bad habit teaches them) and
overwrite the older with the new, but forgot which ones they edited on
the floppy. So, now the user is forced to put both folders into list
view, and manually select, one by one, the files they really want to
replace.

On a scale of 3, this isn't so bad, but try this with a large set of
graphics/html files with multiple subfolders, and see how much fun it
is. Of course, my suggestion earlier of individual prompts isn't much
better.

Hmm, perhaps a list box with summary info? A side-by-side comparison?
This would be an awesome way to work with medium sized sets of duplicate
files. Though, there's potential here for it to spiral out of control
and take up WAY too much screen real-estate.

How would the user be able to decide about specific files? A toggle? A
drop down box in the list? A pair of "Skip"|"Replace" that changes what
will be done to the file with skip all/replace all options?

> Of your proposed buttons, the most useful one by far is "Cancel", which 
> unfortunately doesn't even exist in the current alert. If I'm moving 
> several items at once, and some of them won't go, chances are I don't 
> want to move *any* of them there after all. I want to move them to the 
> folder I really meant (a different one), or all together to a disk that 
> has enough room (a different one). So if "Cancel" is implemented, make 
> sure it really means Cancel, not just Stop.

Hear hear! I'm guessing that this could be implemented a number of ways,
regardless of what the end-result box actually looks like, using
pre-flighting?

> So, ideally I'd prefer just "Cancel" and "Replace", with pre-flighting 
> to collect and summarize conflicts, and a separate Synchronize feature 
> covering the case where you want to merge changes between two copies of 
> a folder including replacements and/or deletions. Until pre-flighting is 
> implemented, you'll need Replace All, Cancel, and Replace.

I'm just throwing in ideas/comments, if they're a bit unintelligible,
forgive the noise, it's a little late.

-Jason Hoover