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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: How about reintroducing ".." in KDE 4?
From:       Sébastien_Laoût "\[temporar\]" <les83plus () free ! fr>
Date:       2004-12-02 15:59:41
Message-ID: 1102003181.2900.35.camel () localhost ! localdomain
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Le jeu 02/12/2004 à 16:01, Henrique Pinto a écrit :
> Em Qui 02 Dez 2004 12:28, Alexander Neundorf escreveu:
> > So, what do you think about reintroducing ".." ?
> 
> I'm not particularly against this, but I think it might confuse people not 
> experienced with the command-line. I remember when half of my school lost all 
> of their mail because they deleted that weird "Maildir" folder that appeared 
> on their homes, and I can imagine people wanting to get rid of "that ugly 
> '..' thing I didn't put there". It also seems non-intuitive, for anyone who 
> does not use the command-line. ".." is not a good metaphor for "go one level 
> up". Anyway, I'm not usability expert, and what I'm saying is what I _think_ 
> that might annoy users. Don't take it too seriously.

IMHO, I would also answer by "No, don't reintroduce that".

Yes, it can cause those several user errors.
Of course, hacks can be done to disable "Delete" on this special case,
etc...
But "special cases" aren't really good in programming.

Usability wise:

- User errors should be avoided BY the interface. Building not obvious
interfaces can do user make mistakes who blam himself instead of blaming
the interface that was not able to avoid he to do the error.

- It's like showing the implementation (of the file system) to the user.
That's not bad: that just must be avoided at all costs.
Only designers of file systems know . and .. entries are a simple and
efficient way to implement there file system... Users don't care at all.

It would also make a nonsense if we introduce next generation documents
browsing methafor (yes, buzzwords :) ) of a "full-meta-data files
without any folders but just searchs/query/live-queries"...

The problem can <easily> be fixed by adding an alternate shortcut such
as [breakspace] to the Up action.
It's used in Windows and GNOME (don't know about MAC OS) and I've also
set it in my KDE: it's not only a MS (perhapse) idea, it's also easier
and time&hands-saving.

I think it would be a better solution for the real problem: go up
fastly.

The only problem is that File/URL Open/Save dialogs don't respect
Konqueror settings and I can't use the [Breakspace] key as a shortcut.
This problem should be addressed instead.

Séb.


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