Re: Usability problem, and solution proposal

[Nathaniel McCallum <npmccallum gentoo org>]

On Thu, 2004-09-30 at 22:15 +0200, Christian Schneider wrote:
> I have two solutions for the problem:
> 
> 1)
> We provide a way of moving the window under the mouse to the top or the 
> bottom. What about using the right mouse key for this. So a drag would 
> work in the following way:
> 
> Start drag with holding left mouse button on the source file. Then you 
> can click the right mouse button to move the source window to the bottom 
> of the window stack. So you get a full view of the target window. In the 
> same way you could use the right mouse button to bring the target window 
> up if you see at least a part of it.
The problem with this is that you loose the ability to cancel your drag
by clicking the right mouse button.  You also loose the ability to use
single button mice (PPC).  Its also not discoverable.  

I think the best solution is to send the source window to the bottom of
the window stack when you drag icons off the window.  You can still drag
within the window and nothing will happen (say to a subfolder).  But
when you leave the bounds of the window, the source window jumps to the
bottom of the stack.

> 2)
> We provide a kind of a visual clipboard. When you start the drag the 
> clipboard appears at the right bottom of the screen. You can then drag 
> the file to the clipboard and drop it there. Then you bring the target 
> folder up and drag the file from the clipboard to the target folder.

The good thing about this is instant discovery.  However, it could get
dangerous.  For instance, what happens if the clipboard jumps up half
above the trash can and you mis-drag and end up deleting stuff you meant
to stick on the clipboard?  I do think the idea has merit though...  It
would provide a cool way to drag from multiple folders.  ie, you could
pile up stuff in the clipboard from a bunch of different folders then
drag them all to the destination folder when you have accumulated
everything.

Nathaniel