RE: File Dialog

[Bart Kuik <kuik rendo dekooi nl>]

On 27 Mar 2001 14:00:21 +0200, Arjan J. Molenaar wrote:
> Bart Kuik says:
> > and in my
> > opinion it would be very bad to live on with the old one until the
> > release of gtk+ 2.0. I really miss some buttons like 
> 'desktop', 'home',
> > 'back', 'forward', and so on. Only thing that works great is
> > filename-completion with <tab>. But indeed, a recent files 
> menu would be
> > very useful. 
> 
> How should the ideal file-selection box look like? There are some attempts
> to make something better on the net, but I don't know how much of a difference
> they make. I've seen some discussion about it on the gtk+ list, but no plans
> were made to improve the current file selection box. What should be on the 
> wish-list? gtk+ style/windows style or maybe NeXTstep style box (I personnaly 
> like the last one ;-)? The create directory button is handy, so are 
> home/desktop/back/forward keys. File completion is a very nice feature and 
> should be preserved IMHO.
> 
> Ideas?
> 

Something based on the NeXTstep fileselector should indeed be the best
(I assume the Wings / WindowMaker one is an exact clone). Small
(360x320), with minimal mouse movement and not too much options. But
going up in the directory structure (back to root) is a hell, coz you
have to use the horizontal scrollbar with the scrollbuttons in the left
bottom, while your mouse-pointer is in the right top side of the window.
Everybody makes mistakes, and it's VERY uncomfortable if the interface
'punishes' you for making them. I didn't figure out where a <back>
button or something similar must be placed, but I know there must be a
better way to do it. 
I think it's best to put the "recent files" in a virtual folder. At
opening the window there must be 3 choices in the left-hand
selection-box : home, recent, and the standard working-dir of the app
(ie, $HOME/files/nameofapp)
That's as far as I see the perfect fileselector. I ain't a
interface-expert, I can't even hack a gtk+ app or whatever, I'm (still)
just a user....

Hmmm.... nice.... the apple-like taskmenu of the gnome menu-panel
(gnome-core 1.4.0) crashes (and restarts, good work! :) ) if I want to
open it if I have the WindowMaker configger WPrefs.app opened with a
dialog of the fileselector. I found a bug in a stable-release. gee. I'm
gonna submit it. :-)

Bart