Re: [Usability] Drag and drop in Web browsers

[John Keller <jkeller matchbox fr>]

Liam R E Quin wrote:
> Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>>  More to the point,
>> apart from dragging text into a textarea, there's been no situation
>> where you could drag stuff *from one browser window into another*, which
>> is what would make panels useful.
> 
> This is not true.  For example, try dragging the icon to the left of the
> Location bar that represents the current Web page onto the bookmark
> menu, or into a gnome-terminal :-) or into a browser window.

I believe MPT was talking about more generalized use of the browser
client area as a drop target; see below for more.

> On Fri, 2006-02-10 at 17:47 +0100, John Keller wrote:
>> This is very much a corner-case example, but I seem to remember a
>> web-based bookmarking system that allowed you to use drag-and-drop to
>> create a new bookmark.
> 
> Netscape, Mozilla, IE, allow you to use drag and drop to create
> and manage bookmarks.  (I think galeon might too, but
> can't try right now)

Yes, but I was talking about a Web-based system that somehow interacted
with a link (the content area was able to act as a drop target for
client-side "system" objects). I only bought it up in reference to the
"never say never" comments (which I quoted in my original reply). I
wasn't, and I don't think the others, were referring to functionality
built-in to the browsers.

The subject was web browser windows as targets, which I agree is very
rare. The example was simply meant to demonstrate that, indeed, "never"
is a very long time - especially when people find creative/unintended uses.

>> As I said, very much a corner case.
> Actually I'd say that for people used to environments that make
> heavy use of drag and drop it's pretty "obvious".
> 
> E.g. in MS Windows, dragging a file icon onto the task bar will make
> the corresponding program open the file.  Dragging an icon onto a
> menu bar opens the menu and invokes the item with the dragged data...
> and Mozilla Firefox at least does the same sort of thing in Linux.

Again this is out of scope. I was replying only to comments about
browser windows, and I was recognizing that my example was a very rare
occasion, but one that - had its use become wide-spread - might have us
rethinking the use of tabs.

This is a pedantic reply, but I think you misinterpreted my comments. I
was never commenting on or disputing the general use of drag-and-drop.
My original reply, taken in context, was only meant as a comment on
browser windows (i.e. the content area) as drop targets.

- John