unity-design team mailing list archive

[Josh Strawbridge <holyknightjoshua@xxxxxxxxx>]

i disagree because the minecraft thing is a bad example as it's a very
simple launch.
before i made a .desktop file to use for my world of warcraft install i
either had to navigate directly to the executable file in nautilus or open
a terminal and type out "wine 'C:/Program Files/GamesForWine/World of
Warcraft/Launcher.exe'" i also would have to do basically the same thing
for blender and a few other things.

now, after making a graphical launcher and putting it in the correct
folder, it shows up in the dash and i only have to click the one i moved to
the unity launcher.

your thinking on the issue seems a bit off to me.  yes "The user in seeking
to make a graphical launcher is seeking brevity and quickness" but they're
seeking brevity and quickness in future launches of an application they
likely frequently use which doesn't already have a graphical launcher.  not
brevity and quickness in launching now if they're going to be making a new
launcher.

the suggestion wasn't about launching things quickly and easily.  the unity
launcher and other graphical launchers do that already.
it was about making it easier to actually make new launchers for
applications which you currently don't have them for.
as far as that process goes this suggestion would make things quicker and
more simple. the options suggested make it so the new launchers are
automatically (if desired) added to the unity launcher when created and are
saved in the folders they need to be in order to show up in the dash when
you search for them.
it's something you only have to do once per launcher and after that it's
more convenient and quicker to launch that application every time.

a dialog box with a few more options than the one picture in this
screenshot is not going to be harder to learn or use than the current
process for most of us (example of .desktop file typed into text editor
also shown in screenshot).
http://ubuntuone.com/3JPDreDJUMRPFodMfrbM81

i guarantee you it's more intuitive and easier for most users (especially
newer ones) to have the options laid out for you to simply fill in and
select when making a launcher instead of having to copy and edit or create
a .desktop file from scratch as text only.

this is no more dangerous than users having access to those raw possibly
misunderstood commands in the terminal or with alt+F2 since it's actually
the same thing.
if all a user had to type in a terminal to launch minecraft is 'minecraft'
then all the launcher a user created for that would do is run the command
'minecraft'.

your suggestion "the user goes to launch minecraft from terminal>types in
command>minecraft launches>terminal icon gives visual cue>user hits shiny
cue>presented with option to pin command to launchbar> popup with icon,
name, comment options" is basically the same thing except you have to run
the command before you can create a launcher for it.
if you've just launched minecraft would you want to fill out a box full of
stuff or get right to playing minecraft? i probably wouldn't bother but
some people might.

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 3:27 PM, <svelanka@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Resend to whole list:This feels like an unintuitive and rough
> implementation. The user in seeking to make a graphical launcher is seeking
> brevity and quickness. Instead he/she is now presented with a dialogbox
> full of choices and obscure options that must be satisfied. Simply put the
> investment in learning how to do it vs. just doing it is not worth it for
> users. Especially if the user is already okay with launching stuff from
> something complicated like the terminal.
>
> I suggest instead splitting the option tree earlier. When the user
> launches a terminal, a quicklist option should be present to pin the
> current command/recent command to the launcher directly. This converts
> behavior instead of having to relearn from scratch. So here the user goes
> to launch minecraft from terminal>types in command>minecraft
> launches>terminal icon gives visual cue>user hits shiny cue>presented with
> option to pin command to launchbar> popup with icon, name, comment options.
>
> Giving the option to just directly paste and create launchers from raw,
> possibly misunderstood commands seems incredibly dangerous.
>
>
> -- Saleel
>


-- 
Josh Strawbridge