On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Mike Hearn wrote:
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 13:10:30 +0000 From: Mike Hearn <mike@...333...> To: inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Inkscape-devel] Re: filedialog change
On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:15:19 -0400, bulia byak wrote:
The only reason I agreed to the new file dialogs is that Ishmal restored the text input field that the Gnome folks removed in GTK 2.4. I agree that not having this field is an incredibly stupid limitation,
I guess I should re-iterate that the reason this was done is because the GNOME guys want to eliminate file paths from the UI a la MacOS Classic.
Too many cooks.
My feeling is that in an effort to make a decision that pleased the majority (even those people who didn't really want a file chooser at all) that GTK went about things a bit backwards (I'll explain in minute...)
As anybody who has ever tried to explain what ~/ or /mnt/net/homes/d20xt3 is to a non-technical user can appreciate, hiding the UNIX filing system is probably wise ...
This is very true.
Rerooting the directory tree starting at the users home directory works fairly well at hiding a lot of the complexity irrelavant to the ordinary user.
whether it makes sense for Inkscape users though I have no idea. They are perhaps in a different demographic to what GNOME is targetting.
The problems is that this demographic consists of the people least likely to use the file chooser at all, and they are far more likely to use drag and drop or open files using the file manager as advocated by those who would do away with the file chooser entirely (which is never going to happen)[1].
The reason I say GNOME/GTK has it backwards is that the defaultis to a fairly complicated file chooser and you must hit Ctrl+L to get the visually more simple location box where you can use regular expressions. Mac OS X on the other hand understands that ordinary users are not likely to be using the FileChooser that often and provide the visually simple location box first and a browse button that expands the dialog to a more complicated one.
I give it a year maybe two before things get to be reordered to be a lot more like Mac OS. (Possibly sooner if I bring it up on the lists, explain it clearly and can provide code).
Sincerely
Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
[1] For accessibility reasons the Location box if fairly important, the current file chooser and the alternatives that have been suggested tend to rely fairly heavily on drag and drop or are not as clear and unambigious as a Location box.