Re: [Nautilus-list] Is PR2 much different from the latestrpm-snapshot?

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

John Sullivan wrote:

> We've debated cut/copy/paste for files, but we won't be implementing it for
> the first release of Nautilus. We might do so in a future release, but it is
> reasonably controversial. The main problem to me is the behavior of Cut --
> is the original file removed when you select Cut, or not until you choose
> Paste? The former matches the behavior of Cut for other data types, but is
> dangerous -- you could easily lose files by copying some other data while
> the Cut file was on the clipboard. The latter is safer -- nothing happens to
> the file until you Paste, but makes the behavior of Cut depend on the type
> of data that is Cut, which violates a commonly accepted tenet of good UI.

Yep, it's almost getting back to that philosophical "why is it only
delete that has a trashcan" discussion we sort of touched on the other
day... you want some sort of holding area to move files to once they've
been "cut" (although you'd probably have to invent a different verb, for
the reasons you mention-- unless all cuts were modified to work this
way, which mightn't be a bad thing either), but without the risk of
losing them should you cut or copy anything else in the meantime.

Having said that, flawed and controversial it may be, but I use cut and
paste almost exclusively to move files around on Windows in preference
to drag and drop-- mostly because it's nearly always quicker, and also
because it gets around the "will this file be copied, moved or linked
when I drop it?" confusion that's inherent when you drag files around. 
(Plus it's a vital accessibility feature for those who can't drag and
drop anything anyway.)

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