Re: GNOME File Selector 0.1 released

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

jacob berkman wrote:
> 
> i've made an initial release of the new GNOME File Selector.  it's a new
> file open/save dialog which is designed to be prettier and easier to use
> (both for users and developers) than the current GtkFileSelector.  it
> also happens to use gnome-vfs, which adds to its coolness.

I'm only going by the screenshots here, but it looks pretty cool.  

Is there going to be an option to switch between the shortcut bar and a
tree view?  One of the big usability losses when M$ switched from the
Win3.x to the Win95 file selector (which replaced the directory tree
with the "Look In" list) was the loss of context.  For example, if you
have two directories with the same name and you're in one of them, you
don't necessarily know which one you're in without trawling upwards
through that "Look In" list.

Apart from that, I've also hated the shortcut bar since the first day
Microsoft introduced it all those years ago-- I wasted the next two
weeks of my life trying to explain to befuddled users how the hell it
worked, after their M$ Mail clients were replaced by M$ Exchange with no
warning!  But that's just a purely personal vendetta... and I'm glad to
note that the one in your file selector doesn't have those sliding tab
bits anyway, which were the main source of everyone's grief.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems