Re: [Usability] Faded File Extensions

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 1 Jan 2006, Jason Hoover wrote:

> Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 01:08:08 -0500
> From: Jason Hoover <jasonhoover verizon net>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Faded File Extensions
>
> On Sat, 2005-12-31 at 17:44 +0100, David Christian Berg wrote:
>
> > Hiding the extension is not always useful. I often need to know, if an
> > image is a jpg or a png, or -- even more important -- maybe even an svg.
> > All these have a preview and I very much appreciate that.
> > So I'd think that hiding the extension should be an option which is on
> > by default, just like it is on win or mac. If the extension is hidden,
> > the tooltip should show the extension and the sniffed file type.
>
> Really, the icon should be doing that for you. You should also be giving

Not in thumbnail mode they dont.

> the files distinct names, not just relying on the extension for the sake

Blame the user, of course it is the users fault.  Why didn't I think of
that?

Isn't the extension part of the distinctive name I have deliberately
chosen?  I could use .jpe, .jpg, .jpeg, jfif, jps all to describe the same
effectively the same file type so my choice of extension is quite
deliberate.

> of spotting it quickly. Such a case of course is why it'd be an option.
> There are no tool-tips in Nautilus AFAIK.
>
> > As for renaming it should just work as it does right now. I love this
> > behaviour! The extension should be shown but not selected, now matter if
> > showing extensions is turned on or off.
>
> Of course. I was implying that. I love it too.
>
> > I really hate this alert. The interface should clarify, that renaming
> > the extension is usually not what you want to do. Hence only the name
> > should be selected. It should warn you about not having any extension.
> > The dialogue should be OK-> use no extension, Cancel -> reedit the name,
> > Use old extension -> uses the extension the file had before.

I'd like undo in Nautilus to make it easier to rollback any such
'mistakes' but it is a much harder problem to tackle.

> I've had ZIP files get MIME'd as MP3's, so there's little chance that
> extensions will be going away anytime within the next (ironic quote
> time) 10 years.

I'm not exactly a wizard with regular expressions but I've always found
file extensions to be extremely helpful.

Hrrm, maybe I should slap a Zenity based user interface onto the good old
file utility?  Might be useful for users who dont like or know the command
line.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/