desktop-packages team mailing list archive

[Isaac <95853@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gosh, this thread got ugly, with the "windoze" bashing and calling
people "imbeciles", over a feature that is:

a) easily solved (I went back and forth between looking for solutions on
the internet, and essentially rewriting most of the code GG wrote in a
patch more than 7 years ago, before noticing that he did it).

b) would inconvenience NOBODY (it would be an option, turned OFF by
default, so the default behavior wouldn't change)

c) ... in an application that isn't exactly overflowing with user
options

d) ... and would have effectively no additional performance overhead
(we're calling one user setting, one branch operation, and MAYBE a
hundred bytes of memory - if this is what we're calling bloat, give me a
break kids).

e) and when you find yourself on a strange, annoying or poorly laid out
keyboard, becomes VERY important.


I truly can't believe this community sometimes. Because credentials and history seems to matter to some people, I've been using Linux AND Windows for over 15 years (each). I am comfortable in both - though more comfortable on the command line, where things can't accidentally end up in the trash by hitting a delete key that is too close to an enter key. I spend most of my time developing code in Linux, and then using Windows for anything "productive" that I want to do - i.e. anything other than develop code on the command line. Why? Because in a modern operating system - one that wants its users to know what's going on, and prevent things like accidental data loss if the wrong key is pressed - these aren't issues. And I'm a user who knows what I'm doing - I can only imagine the user that is relatively new to Linux.

The arguments - 'OMG do we need a dialog box for copies? moves? drags?'
Sure, if those can be done by one errant keypress. If move-to-trash
became a ctrl+whatever combo instead of a single key, this whole topic
would be moot.

Did I spend 20 minutes having to fish things out of the trash because of
it tonight? Yes. Could I have possibly, irreparably, lost data if I
hadn't noticed? Absolutely.

If these are the sort of things that generate ridicule, then it's time
to stop trying to entice "ordinary users" (you know, the OSX and Windoze
folks everyone seems to revile) from ever using Ubuntu. Or to stop
making Gnome/Nautilus the default file browser.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
Packages, which is subscribed to nautilus in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/95853

Title:
  Nautilus: too easy to move files/folders to Trash (single key press of
  "Delete")

Status in Ayatana Design:
  New
Status in Nautilus:
  Won't Fix
Status in nautilus package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  SUMMARY

  If a file or a folder is selected in Nautilus and you accidentally
  press Delete button, they are moved to the Trash.  NO warning is
  issued (even though in Nautilus Preferences "Ask before emptying the
  Trash or deleting files" is selected )

  In comment #39, Holger Berndt notes that the present behaviour is
  intention.  Moving an item to the Trash is a revertible action,
  whereas emptying the Trash is not revertible.

  However, this can be very annoying and dangerous bug to a common user
  - a user may have pressed "Delete" to move very important data to the
  Trash, and then, without realising the previous action have cleaned
  the Trash, so permanently loosing that information despite there being
  a two-step (and partially revertible) process.

  NOTES

  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04 and up

  POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

  In comment #38, David Siegel notes that the options would be ripe for
  some proper user testing research and design.

  a. In comment #92 Matthew Paul Thomas notes that a better solution to
  the problem of it being too easy to delete (move to Trash)
  files/folders with a single keypress would be to change the keypress
  to be a combo.  For example the combo could be Ctrl-Delete.

  b. In comment #107 (and also earlier in the thread), Giorgio Gilestro
  supplies a patch to add another configuration key
  ('/apps/nautilus/preferences/confirm_delete') and accompanying user
  interface components to make single key deletion require a dialogue
  box pass-through.  Some other environments, such as Konquerer, ask the
  user if they want to delete a file or a folder.

  c. In comment #28 Wouter Stomp, notes that applications (such as
  Gmail) allow the operation, but notify the user with a "yellow box" at
  the top and an "undo"/"cancel" option.

  d. Perhaps you have another possible solution, that deals with the
  core problem without impeding the workflow of others.

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