Re: [Usability] tools on the desktop

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

On Sun, 2005-07-31 at 15:50 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Jul 2005, Rodney Dawes wrote:
> > For things like USB keyfobs and such, I think we should just fix the
> > problems with losing dating if you unplug the device, and it is not
> > written to yet.
> 
> Yes please!
> 
> Making users jump through hoops because the sofware is not smart enough to
> cache data is really annoying.

The problem is that the software is caching data, actually. It's
buffering the write to disk, so the data might not actually be synced
yet when the user pulls the plug, since the writes are async. :) This
basically means that devices need to be unmounted properly so that the
data can be dumped to disk, rather than lost. Windows and MacOS both
have methods to whine at you when you unplug devices without stopping
them.

> > The Mac OS "eject" behavior for dragging to the trash, is more related
> > to the hardware interfaces, I think. Macs have historically not had
> > eject buttons for at least floppy and cd-rom drives, and therefore
> > required the user to eject things via software, or with a paper clip.
> 
> The hardware forced them to provide a proper software fix, but even if
> they had hardware buttons I think it is something they would have gotten
> around to eventually.

I would hardly call it "forced" or a "proper software fix". Apple
designed both pieces of that equation. Being able to eject media from
software is nice, so long as it is intuitive.

> If I recall correctly Mac OS provided a menu Item for Eject (in the System
> menu?) near where the Shutdown button lives but I dont think Gnome
> provides a suitable and convenient menu item for ejecting mounting drives
> (but dont quote me on that, I may have missed it or not be adequately up
> to date).  Can we provide an equivalent as it might be less contraversial
> and we need a more easily discoverable method to eject drives even if the
> various suggestions are implemented in some form or another.

They did provide a menu item, in at least pre-X Mac OS. However, the
thing at the top of the screen in Mac OS is not a "panel". It is THE
menubar. So, when you are focused on the Finder desktop icons, you get
the Finder menus. I don't know if the menu item to eject devices still
exists in OS X, but it's not something that can be easily duplicated in
Gnome with the way Nautilus and the panel work. It would take a
sufficiently large patch to have Nautilus notify a panel applet of which
icon on the desktop is focused, and if it can be ejected, unmounted, or
anything else, I think.

> > They've added eject buttons to some machines in the near recent
> > development of hardware, but many devices still do not have hardware
> > eject buttons. Of course, Nautilus also already provides an
> > "Eject/Unmount" item in the context menu for mounted devices.
> 
> I think the unreliability of mount which in effect cripples the eject
> button on most CD drives forced Nautilus to provide a workaround.
> Ideally the eject button should just work (although you might still want
> to disable it while a Disc is being burned).

Mount itself does not cripple the eject button on CD drives, afaict. In
SUSE 9.3 at least, with the subfs mounting stuff, it does not break the
eject button at all. You can hit the hardware eject button on the drive,
and it will Just Work (TM).

-- dobey