'Re: New File Selection Dialogs'

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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: New File Selection Dialogs
From:       "Jamethiel Knorth" <jamethknorth () hotmail ! com>
Date:       2004-05-31 17:41:20
Message-ID: BAY7-F5QhmGbVreb5dm0004b3b7 () hotmail ! com
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>From: William Leese <william@leese.nl>
>Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 10:44:27 +0200
>
>Jamethiel Knorth wrote:
>
>>I have put together designs for a new set of file dialogs. They're not 
>>massively different, but there are a lot of changes. The good version is 
>>at:
>>
>>http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/~abreschm/designs/file_selector/index.html
>>
>>and a short version is at:
>>
>>http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/~abreschm/designs/file_selector/short.html
>>
>>and some background on what other file dialogs do is at:
>>
>>http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/~abreschm/designs/file_selector/background.html
>>
>>Check it over. There are issues, even some that I can see in a quick 
>>review. This was prompted by the mock-ups I was making for my searching 
>>idea.
>>
>>The main changes would be:
>>
>>* New quick-access panel
>
>
>.. which leaves no room for the users own shortcuts. The shortcut bar can't 
>hold many entries, so it's not a good idea to just randomly place anything 
>that might seem useful there.

Wait, what? The entire current listing is included and fits. What is there 
no space for?

>>   - Search bar
>
>This could be a button instead perhaps? OTOH having it inline makes it more 
>accessible. But wouldn't it ideally be located next to the addressbar, or 
>directly above/below the filesystem view?

It takes up a lot of space in either of those spaces. If it is placed beside 
the location bar (my original choice) it takes up too much space when 
programs add their own extensions there. Several do. Kate's encoding 
selector, for example, makes that way too crowded.

>>   - Dynamic devices list
>
>What are the chances that the user has so many devices that they don't all 
>fit in the open file dialog? Pretty big I think.

That is why it is set up the same as the desktop: what types of devices are 
shown is chosen by the user. So, it would show CDs, floppies, etcetera. As 
opposed to the current system, a horrifically bad system, which started me 
with a floppy icon even though my computer has no floppy drive.

It's not like it would show their hard-drive or anything silly like that. It 
would just add the removable media they have.

>>   - Dynamic list of recent locations
>
>What about the length of a path? What are the chances that these are too 
>long for the dialog? "/home/wvl/downloads" already gets cuts off, this is 
>only one deep after my home folder..

Shows the last entry in the path, more in a tooltip. Usually, that is 
enough. The purpose is for when you have been using a directory a lot 
recently, in which case you will probably know why it is there.

>>   - New bookmark system
>
>Bookmarks, Shortcuts..
>
>Why aren't these two being merged instead? Bookmarks will then contain a 
>few defaults (the shortcuts in the Shortcut bar). Needs some thought 
>aswell..

They are. In this system, bookmarks are for a specific program, the 
shortcuts are universal. There's no great reason, but that is a useful 
division. That is also why the bookmarks appear at the bottom, as they might 
get very long.

>>* Better configuration system
>>* Better preview field
>>   - Show large icons, rather than blanks for many files
>>   - Show metadata information
>
>Might want to put a seperator between the icon and metadata.

Looking at that in a mock-up, it seems kinda extraneous. The icon is always 
separated (visually) by the fact that it is an image and the metadata is 
text. Also, what advantage is there to having them separated? They both 
serve the same purpose: they deliver additional information about the 
selected file.

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