[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: kde's future
From:       Thomas <zander () xs4all ! nl>
Date:       2001-01-09 20:08:43
[Download RAW message or body]

I understand very well that you (and many others) like the administrative
stuff right at your fingertips. I see the need and see that many power users
have no problem renaming a file when they ware saving a file. 

My point is also very simple; KDE is for a large audience, most of the users
of KDE want to do one task and do that well. When they are done with that task they 
move on to the next task.
Please don't overestimate the users KDE is targeting, we use computers daily, most
of us are naturally multitasking. But many of the people that have to use KDE are
not. Think for example about the fact that most people can not understand and use
tree-structures deeper then 2 levels.

If you can create a save/load dialog that is foolproof; perfect. But adding renaming
and deletion methods in a file-save dialog makes no sense to the normal user. 
These users are actually saving a file, and want to get that over with.

If you put management tasks in there, these normal users will stop understanding
your most basic dialog. When a user does not understand and maybe makes a mistake or 2
(s)he gets confused and stops experimenting. 
When the user stops experimenting because of confusion or because they are scared
you have failed in creating a good OS. 

I don't want to follow Microsoft in their mistakes.

As a point of proof; take a look at the MacOS file-dialog.  It does not 
delete/rename files.

As a resolve to the matter, I would like to suggest (please do some user tests with
computer illiterate people) to ONLY do renaming/deletion in the pop-up menu. F2 for
renaming seems OK, but the keyboard button 'del' should certainly not delete a file!!
If at all possible in default configuration there should not be a del/rename button 
on the toolbar, making the toolbar configurable seems fine to me.

Lets keep the blinking 12:00 people (*) happy, provide them with an easy and 
non-destructive default.


> > People tend to use what they know, so keep it simple, keep it predictable!!
> > 
> > 
> It is not hard to understand that you can do File Administration in a
> file-dialog,

Its a save-dialog, not a file-dialog ;)


* It has been shown that the majority of the people who use vcr do not set the
clock, they seem happy with the default value of a blinking 12:00
-- 
Thomas Zander                                            zander@earthling.net
The only thing worse than failure is the fear of trying something new

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]