Re: [Usability] gparted usability (new)

[John Keller <jkeller matchbox fr>]

Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> --- John Keller <jkeller matchbox fr> wrote:
> 
>> On the other hand, there does seem to be some sort
>> of weird logic to the
>> layout: My 512 MB flash drive is exactly one half
>> the view's width,
>> while my 120 GB hard drive is 100%. Another,
>> external hard drive is
>> about 90% the width of the view. The odd thing: the
>> external drive is 60
>> GB - exactly one-half the (unformatted) size of the
>> internal drive.
> 
> It's logarithmic. You can actually set it to linear,
> which is pretty useless with different sized drives as
> you say.

Indeed. I didn't look for the preference until you mentioned it (the
management console is a mishmash of menus that may or may not change).
It defaults to a logarithmic scale, which I always assumed was the only
option.

>> Finally, keeping a single view ensures that the user
>> has no doubt which
>> drive he's working with. In light of potentially
>> destructive operations,
>> that seems to me like a good thing.
> 
> That's a very good point.
> I think it trumps my desire to see an overview of all
> my drives.
> 
>> On a slightly related note, since it was a subject
>> of another thread:
>> There might be potential problems for color-blind or
>> vision-impaired
>> people. Only solid colors are used, and some of them
>> (ext2 and reiserfs)
>> are pretty close in the spectrum. I'm no expert in
>> color choice, I just
>> thought I'd bring it up. I'm not even sure if people
>> in that group would
>> rely on the graph, when the text list is nicely laid
>> out right below it.
> 
> I'm inclined to agree. The table below lists the
> filesystem types anyway. The colours are a convenience
> rather than a necessity.
> But why not allow the user to change them? Clicking on
> the colour boxes in the colour key could open the
> colour chooser.

Except that Bart mentioned his intention to remove the key (which I
snipped out in light of my own verbosity ;-)). I'd imagine color
selection being a preference or a view option. Maybe predefined sets
instead of individual color selection; then things like "high contrast"
or "black and white pattern only" would be possible.

I'd probably be in favor of removing the legend, since the text list of
partitions serves as a sort of key anyway (the swatch next to the
filesystem type). Not only that, the text list is a color legend that
precisely corresponds to the order (including repeated
colors/filesystems) of the graphical display above.

- John