Re: [Usability] Merge Open/Save (was "Re: Save Icon")

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On 8 Feb, 2006, at 11:31 PM, David Christian Berg wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-02-07 at 17:43 +0300, Alexey Rusakov wrote:
> > This is close to what Jef Raskin proposes in his "Humane Interface"
> > book. The idea is that instead of Open/Save there should be exactly 
> > one button (he names it "Disk", IIRC), that does all the work. If the
> > document is newer on disk and not changed in the memory, it loads the
> > document. If it is changed in the memory (i.e. it is newer that a 
> > copy on disk), this button performs "Save". Well, and if there is a 
> > conflict, the button reveals it, and lets the user decide. I think 
> > this idea is quite promising.
>
> I strongly object! First of all, one button should not perform two
> totally different things -- and open vs. save is definitely not 
> similar --

Page 182: "It has been suggested that the DISK command created a modal 
situation. The objection, however, occurs only if the DISK command is 
thought of as Load and Save commands hidden behind the same key. But if 
you don't know about those commands, as on conventional systems, you 
may just think of the DISK button as the 
'do-what-needs-to-be-done-with-the-disk' command. In the event, no mode 
errors were observed in testing."

Raskin also suggests that the only reason the Macintosh (and therefore 
Windows, and therefore Gnome) has "Open" and "Save" commands *at all* 
is because he hadn't realized that the DISK command could be replaced 
by the Eject command, which could perform any necessary saving before 
ejecting the disk. The Macintosh could have made this possible since it 
had software-eject-only floppy drives, but Gnome cannot. Fortunately, 
nowadays floppy disks are nearly obsolete. Unfortunately, we now have 
USB keys with the same problem.

> and secondly I see quite the problems with normal interfaces. How
> could I open a document in a second tab of Gedit? How do I fit "Save 
> as" in this concept or "Open Recently"?

As I understand it, in the Humane Interface there would be no such 
thing as "open", "tab", "Gedit", "Save As...", or "Open Recent". The 
only one of those I object to is "Save As..." (or, as I'd call it, 
"Make a Copy..."), because we still use lots of removable media.

> If a document is newer in memory, I might want to reopen it from the 
> old version, because I did some changes, I shouldn't have done, and 
> copy paste elements from the newer version
> ...

You could do that with Select All, Copy, Undo back as far as you 
wanted, Paste, and merge from there.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/