Re: [Usability] File operations dialog redesign

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Shaun McCance wrote on 09/06/08 03:51:
> 
> On Mon, 2008-06-09 at 00:59 +0100, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>> 
>> Matthew Paul Thomas wrote on 01/05/08 22:34:
>...
>> With that in mind, I've revised
>> <http://live.gnome.org/Nautilus/ProgressWindow> taking into account all
>> your feedback.
> 
> Just one nitpick from me.  You say on that page:
> 
>   The button to the right of (and vertically centered with)
>   the progress bar should read “Cancel” if the task is still
>   in its pre-flighting stage, or “Stop” if the task has begun
>   making changes on disk.
> 
> I know we haven't addressed Cancel/Stop yet for the terminology
> guidelines (and I know I haven't been doing them much lately),
> but the difference between Cancel and Stop (as I'll propose it
> anyway) is that Cancel denotes something that can be backed out
> of completely.

Exactly. Microsoft has an equivalent guideline
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511486.aspx>: "Label the
button Cancel if canceling returns the environment to its previous state
(leaving no side effect); otherwise, label the button Stop to indicate
that it leaves the partially completed operation intact."

> With moving or copying a single file, the data is copied into
> the new file without the original being affected at all.  If
> you're moving the file, the original should be unlinked only
> after the new file is completely written.  If you cancel the
> operation, the new file can (and, I think, should) be deleted,
> leaving the original still in place.
> 
> Now, with a multiple-file move or copy, this isn't the case.
> Files are copied one-by-one.  So even if no particular file
> is left in both places, you're left in a sort of weird state
> of files in both places.  So that needs to be Stop.
>...

I guess I was overly specific about when the button should switch to
"Stop". In future, Nautilus might become able to cancel some partly-done
operations, but that shouldn't change the design of the progress window.
I've fixed the spec.

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