Re: Application roles - first steps

[Enrico Sersale]

On 2004-02-21 17:39:18 +0200 Stefan Urbanek <stefan@agentfarms.net> wrote:

> On 2004-02-20 13:04:38 +0100 Enrico Sersale <enrico@imago.ro> wrote:
>
> > On 2004-02-18 22:31:09 +0200 Stefan Urbanek <stefan@agentfarms.net> wrote:
> <snip>
> > > You can also add the role into inspector, if it is no problem (it should 
> > > be shown there regardles of user preferences). However, the point of 
> > > adding it directly to the viewer and enabling it by default was, that 
> > > users can see that something like roles exists. For the time being, user 
> > > defaults can be used to configure that, no need for preferences UI, if it 
> > > is a problem.
> > >
> > > Is that possible?
> >
> > Yes, but I don't know if it is a good idea to show something more then the 
> > file name in a browser column or under an icon. I think that we should 
> > always use inspectors for these kinds of information.
>
> Why not? Browser/icon should show information that is most relevant to the 
> user. It does not have to reflect implmenetation, which is filename in this 
> case. You do not need filename for application, you need application 
> function/name, which is in this case described by its role and optionaly real 
> name. Well, most of users do need this. And there sill will be an option for 
> showing filenames.
>
> There is no point of having it only in inspector. What can be achieved by 
> direct role displaying is faster orientation of the user. It's like 
> thumbnails of images: you see what is in the image immediately without 
> opening it. Situation: user wants to start a web bowser. He opens 
> /Local/Applications folder and looks there. What he sees are many .app files 
> with names like Gimp.app, Mozilla.app, Gaim.app (i'm taking existing app 
> names as examples). He well not know, what the applications do just from 
> those names (i'm not even talking about non-descriptive application icons). 
> He can try launching it and see what it does, but that is really waste of 
> time and resources. You suggest looking in the inspector panel. Sure, he can 
> do that, but he will have to traverse through all application icons to find 
> what he looks for. If application role was displayed somewhere around app 
> icon or in the browser cell, user can immetiately spot what he is looking 
> for.

Ok. You convinced me :) (The problem is that, sometimes, I'm a bit reactionary 
regarding this. Probabably I'd still use the old Mac OS 7 Finder, If I could).
But I can understand that the future is in this direction...
And, extending your concept, I think that I'll implement this not only for 
applications but for any kind of file.


> <rest removed>
>
> Stefan Urbanek