Re: [Usability] Copying a File to a Directory When a File of That Name Already Exists

[Liam R E Quin <liam holoweb net>]

On Wed, 2006-01-04 at 17:14 -0500, Sarah Berry wrote:
[...]
> To clarify, imagine I have a file called photo1.jpg residing in a
> ~/images subdirectory.  In my home directory, I have another image,
> also called "photo1.jpg."  I drag this file to the "images"
> sub-directory.  A dialogue box appears, telling me that a file of that
> name already exists.  Information about the date and size of the file
> are provided.  What I would like to see are thumbnail previews of the
> two images as well, so that the user can distinguish at a glance if it
> is the same file.

The computer should be able to tell you if the files have identical
contents -- the question really arises when they similar to each other
but not identical.

"File1 as the same content as File2"
"File1 is the same as File2 (why?...)"

where activating the Why link might tell the user
"the files are links to the same data"
"/a/b/c is a symbolic link to /d/e/f, so that
 /a/b/c/img/argyle.jpg is the same file as /d/e/f/img/arglyle.jpg"

Giving explicit and clear feedback in this sort of case would
really help in those cases where people easily get confused.

And then, as you suggest, if the files are not the same, and the
content is not the same, you may want to see a preview and/or open
both files to make sure you're doing the right thing.  And it
would be helpful if Nautilus made that process easy.

Best,

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org www.advogato.org