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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Strange selection highlighting system in Konqueror
From:       Datschge <datschge () gmx ! de>
Date:       2004-11-24 17:26:19
Message-ID: 200411241826.11065.datschge () gmx ! de
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On Wednesday 24 November 2004 14:11, ´ácek Kry¨tof wrote:
> IMO the simplest and unambigous solution is:

Simplest and callow solution I'd rather call it.

> 1. ALL operations are carried out on SELECTED items - open, delete,
> copy, .. etc.  User selects the item in desire to operate on it.
> Now OPEN operates on cursor, DELETE operates on SELECTION.

Problem: You could end up accidentally opening a whole folder of files 
at the same time that way. Enter is not part of 'all operations' 
because it's a special button in computer usage. If not used for line 
break it's always used for 'confirm/execute default action'.

> 2. If there are no SELECTED items, no operation can be done
> (regardless where the cursor is). 

Problem: Inconsistent with general cursor usage.

> 3. Moving the cursor changes the selection to the cursor. If there
> is a SELECTION, the cursor is always part of the selection (as it is
> now in Konqueror). 

Problem: This is not and cannot be the case, Ctrl, Space and Insert 
all allow for disconnected selections. The cursor always being part 
of the selection makes it completely unclear to the user at what 
point a file is actually selected or just selected due to the cursor 
being there atm, turning selecting/unselecting single files into a 
guessing contest. Showing the current state clearly is an important 
part of good usability.

> 4. Pressing Enter on multiple SELECTED items opens all selected
> items. This is now impossible in Konqueror.

Problem: You could end up accidentally opening a whole folder of files 
at the same time that way. And no, this is not impossible in 
Konqueror, just make a selection and choose your preferred action 
from them right click menu.

> To put it simply: this is the behaviour if Windows Explorer and it
> is pretty consistent through all versions.

Yes, consistent across Windows versions it is indeed. But it's not 
consistent with itself and regularly leading to people rebooting 
computers when accidentally pressing Enter while having a huge 
selections of files leading to an unresponsive computer due to quick 
exhaustion of cpu and memory.

Cheers, Datschge
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