-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Kirk Bridger wrote: > Hi Matt, > > This is an interesting idea, but I have two immediate concerns: > > 1 - We would be exposing some inner workings (mime types) to the users > directly. This level of understanding isn't really required for most > users. In Windows when I look at the file type dialogue and things to > open them with, I get a little overwhelmed (and I don't consider myself > a novice or casual user). Another example that pops up is the Quicktime > installation - it includes a part where you "associate" Quicktime with > specific file types. That dialogue is almost always accepted as the > default by me because frankly there are too many to know what each one > is, what application I would like to use to open, etc. The user likely > thinks in terms of working with individual files or actions (all music I > download from the Internet, or all music on my music device that I copy > over). If they care about using a specific application that option > should be available to them (and it is through the current dialogues). > But to take it one level further and say that all mime types of a > certain breed are associated with a particular application implies a > certain degree of expertise. I know Gnome is often (incorrectly) > criticized for removing expert functionality, and I'm not going to rule > this kind of thing out just because I think Gnome needs to target > specific user classes. But if this is going to be explored, I would > suggest that any use cases created reflect the expert nature of the > user. I think only experts would use this because they're the only ones > who know what a mime type is.
These are all things that could be ironed out, on the wiki page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Usability/SpecEnhancedPreferredApps) Warbo came up with an idea that could work very well. He is suggesting (If I interpreted it correctly) to group types of files together, i.e. text documents, music files and the such and assigning a program to open that group of files. > 2 - We're slipping into categorizing files by their extensions. I think > this is short sighted - a mime type is not determined by the file > extension (to the best of my knowledge). User's may not know that a > .ogg is a media file to start with, but ask them if it is different from > a .mp3 and most users don't really know. They just know they're > listened to (and even then most likely based on the filename itself, not > the extension). Another example of this is .jpg vs .png - they're > different how? One comes from my camera, the other is images saved off > a webpage I liked. The fact that they are mime types doesn't even enter > into the thought process. I think it is more about source, use, and > destination than how things are represented on the computer. Very good points, to tell the truth I hadn't considered that, but Warbo's suggestion may be able to get rid of that problem. > I think the current means of opening with a primary application, having > access to a secondary list, and being able to add any application you > want to that secondary list works really well. I'd really like to see > some expert use cases that make this process onerous, with the solution > being the centralized location for changing mime type associations. I'd agree, it does work well, but it could work better. I was confused when I started using ubuntu that I couldn't change my preferred applications using the preferred applications dialogue, this seemed crazy to me. I'm going to try and conjure up some more use-cases, but if anyone want to add any feel welcome. > Sincerely, > > Kirk You make some very good points which I feel we can address. Thanks for your comments, they are very thought provoking. Regards, Matt -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFp7+92eHdgg4mgnERAp3GAKCZH4LJ23vH0cA7Ku2Aoxo15xO3swCZAZNk oRfJkzW5xCpdeuoazIvek68= =YF69 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
