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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: "Home" name confusing
From:       James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj () acm ! org>
Date:       2006-10-12 6:13:47
Message-ID: 452DDD1B.7080401 () acm ! org
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Iñaki wrote:
> El Miércoles, 11 de Octubre de 2006 03:55, James Richard Tyrer 
> escribió:
>> Iñaki wrote:
>>> Hi, I've realized that various friends of mine when starting in 
>>> Kubuntu they have a singular problem: they confuse the meaning of
>>>  "Home".
>>> 
>>> This is, I tell them by phone "save the file in your home" and 
>>> they intuitively try to save that file in /home instead of 
>>> /home/user.
>>> 
>>> I have a theory about the cause of this confusion:
>>> 
>>> - In Windows this issue never occurs because the user never see:
>>>  "C:\Document and settings\user\Documents\..." The user always 
>>> see: "My documents\..." (when saving or opening file, or when 
>>> exploring him documents).
>> First you need to clearly understand that in KDE: "My Documents" is
>>  NOT "HOME".  KDE's equivalent to" "My Documents" is: 
>> "system:/documents".
> 
> Do you really imagine a newbie the first time he read: 
> "system:/documents"? "What are they? documents about the system? 
> which system?"
> 
I don't like this either.  As I said below, it should be: "documents:/".
> 
> 
>>> - But in Linux when the user press "Home" icon he see: 
>>> "/home/user/..."

>> The URL for the Home icon is configurable.
> 
> A common user doesn't expect to have to configure the "home url".
> 
Actually, if they want Home to be on the web, they will have to
configure it just the same as with other browsers.

However, the default is $HOME
> 
> 
>>> in the navigation bar, so, what is "home"? the "home" directory? 
>>> my directory?...
>> The Home directory is the root of the user's private directory tree
>>  just as it is on Windows -- it is a directory that has the name of
>>  the user's account name.  "My Documents" is a subdirectory of the 
>> directory "<user>".
> 
> I know, but I'm speaking about new people using KDE and Linux (or 
> similar systems):
> 
> - Any user knows what a directory is. - Any user can understand that 
> "\" in Linux is "/". - Any user can learn that there is not "C:", but
>  "/" is the beggining of files. - Any users knows by intuition that
> in ths url "/home/user", "home" is a directory. - But any newbie can
> get confused when he read "home" and remember the "/home" directory 
> instead of understand that "home" is refered to "/home/user".
> 
But, do windows users use the: "<user>" directory?  IIUC, you only go
there to find configuration files.
> 
> 
>>> In KDE there is a strange and useless kio called "home://" that 
>>> is exactly the same as "/home", why does it exist? it just maybe 
>>> to add confusion.
>> Have no idea what it is for.
> 
> Neither me. I've seen no application using it.
> 
>>> A solution for this issue could be a kio: "myhome://" pointing to
>>>  "/home/user", so the user doesn't need to know the complex file 
>>> system of Linux.
>> This wouldn't be a good idea.  Home can already be accessed through
>>  the: "system:/" directory.
> 
> I think this is a worse idea. The user shouldn't read "system" word 
> when trying to do normal things with him documents.
> 
Accessing the $HOME directory isn't doing normal things with his
documents.  Just as on Windows, you should store your documents in: [My]
Documents (unless you prefer to call it "Files" as I do) which is a
subdirectory of the "<user>" directory.  Unfortunately, there is a bug in
KDE and the Documents directory only works for KDE apps. :-(
> 
>> I do note that: "documents:/" would be useful.
> 
> I understand that nobody here like "my ***" because is the words used
>  by Microsoft in "My documents", "My music", "My MSN Space...". But 
> "my" is more intuitive for any user.

This (using "My ****" has been ridiculed a lot and Microsoft will drop
it with the next release.  So, I don't think that we should start using
it now.

> What is "documents:/"? system documents?

No, it would be a short cut for the equivalent of "My Documents" except
that there is no: "my" and Linux normally uses all lower case for file &
directory names -- I question that and I use "Files" & "Documents" as
directory names on my system.

-- 
JRT
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