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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Can we* prettyplease do something about the KUrlNavigator?
From:       Matthew Woehlke <mw_triad () users ! sourceforge ! net>
Date:       2009-06-22 17:18:51
Message-ID: h1oeds$nd9$1 () ger ! gmane ! org
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Maciej Pilichowski wrote:
> On Friday 19 June 2009 21:07:20 Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> Have I mentioned yet that I think the GTK style is ugly? And that I
>> generally hate it? :-)
> 
> I think it is ugly _but_ I use it. So it is useful. With KDE I rather 
> avoid location bar because it is full of surprises, misclick, and you 
> get switch of mode.
> 
> GTK is also self-explanatory, when I first saw it I had no hesitation 
> to use it, no confusion, no questions, etc. I could use it right 
> away.

I don't recall any confusion over KDE's navigator (or misclicks, for 
that matter), but I've no evidence that I'm "typical". (That's the 
problem with these sort of conversations without hard data.)

>> KDE did better here; it's not ugly and so doesn't make me wish
>> rather for a plain old address bar, and it's actually useful in a
>> way gtk's isn't.)
> 
> And useful in sense you actually use it? ;-)

Yes, I use it. I appreciate that I can jump from /a/b/c/d to /a/e in two 
clicks; I use that relatively often. If GTK has that feature, it's 
apparently less discoverable (since I haven't found it).

The thing is, I never found GTK's breadcrumb bar useful. It is IMO 
useless for navigation since all you can do is go up levels. The edit 
mode is clunky (causes the entire UI to re-layout and possibly resize!). 
And it looks ugly.

Personally I don't see an advantage to it over just an edit box with an 
integrated 'go up a level' button. I would *much* rather be able to 
globally replace it with just an edit box. The marginal convenience of 
being able to click once to go up directories versus click plus tap 
shift-end,delete doesn't (IMO) come anywhere close to compensating for 
the inconvenience of a navigator that is completely useless at 
navigating "down" and doesn't permit typing. Especially not when it is 
more visually distracting than an edit box would be.

TBH I mostly tolerate KDE's version purely on aesthetic reasons. And, as 
mentioned, being able to jump to the child directory of any ancestor is 
a nice feature. (I would like it even more if there was an arrow to jump 
to the child of the current location as well.)

If we apply the ugly stick in the name of usability, I suspect I may 
want my plain old address bar back.

-- 
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
-- 
"Have you tried that new mixed drink, 'GDR'"?
"What is it?"
"Gin, Duck and Rum. It tastes fowl."

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