Re: [Usability]file selection dialogs - curious about presence of "." directory

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2003, John Levon wrote:

> Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 12:33:47 +0100
> From: John Levon <levon movementarian org>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: Krzysztof Foltman <kfoltman onet pl>, usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability]file selection dialogs - curious about presence
>     of "." directory
>
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2003 at 12:11:01PM +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
>
> > obvious to new users what the ".."  represents, somethig a bit like this:
> >
> > ^ .. (Parent Directory)

.. (Parent Directory)
File1.txt
File2.txt
File3.txt

To do it more fully I think it nicely indents the first line making it
more distinct.  But I would not do it just based on visual and aesthetic
reasons.

> Then why the ".." part at all ? It takes extra space, and if I didn't
> know what ".." meant,

I would prefer to leave it in the hope that the user would at least have
the chance to learn and understand that .. is shorthand for Parent
Directory.  Most users may never go on to use the command line or a
program that only uses ".." without explaining it, but those who do might
actually appreciate that we did explain and attempt to educate.

> I'd be wondering how to get the rest of that
> sentence, since it looks more than a little like an ellipsis.

I suppose, but it is two dots not three, and from the context users might
figure ...

- Alan H.