58312 - XP FilePicker: ".." button should be an icon

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Core :: XUL, defect, P3)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

the "go up a directory button" in the linux file picker is a ".."

I like it, but novice users may not know what that means, and if other platforms
use the XP file picker (say, embedding?)  ".." may not be as intuitive as a
fancy icon.

adding german and jglick to the cc list.

Comment 1

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

This button is going to disappear shortly, which should solve the problem.

Comment 2

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

the button will disappear?  will anything be going in its place?

is there a spec for the filepicker anywhere I can look at?

Comment 3

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

updating summary.

Comment 4

[Peter Trudelle]

I thought that this button was just a stop-gap replacement for the intended
popup list of ancestor directories that is commmonly used on all major
platforms.  We cut the list late in the project due to defects, but it should
really be part of the finished filepicker.

Comment 5

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

Right now that top list is a history list, not an ancestor directory list...
this is another reason having a spec would be good.

Comment 6

[Peter Trudelle]

Yes, but I think that having it as a history list was a mistake, due no doubt to
not having a spec. Most other occurrences of this widget (that I've seen) just
use it to show directories on the current path.

Comment 7

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I agree, having a history is bad.

having directories up the current path sounds much better.

something for mpt to mull over if he accepts the file-picker spec bug.

Comment 8

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Yes, exactly. In my (only partly completed) spec, the `..' button is replaced by 
a popup menu for the ancestor directories. (There is also a pulldown menu for 
recently-used directories, and one for the user's selection of commonly-used 
directories.)

Seth, if `the file-picker spec bug' exists (I can't find it), please CC me on it. 
Thanks.

Comment 9

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Oh, scratch that. I found it. Bug 58336.

Comment 10

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

I'll optimistically predict that we can get the filepicker UI cleaned up before
1.0...

Comment 11

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

Ok, let's plan on not fixing this.  I just filed bug 121354 about converting the
history list to an ancestor directory list, when that is fixed we can remove the
"up" button entirely.

Comment 12

[[e-mail]]

Uhm, why is having a history bad? From the point of view of user-friendlyness
having a list of recent save locations is *very* convenient and in many
cases can save a lot of typing and clicking. It often so happens that
people save different type of data in one of a few save locations and
having a history of about 6 directories will reduce the effort to 
do that to two mouseclicks.

So the ideal solution would be to have the history dropdown list and
the "up" button with a better text or icon that could have a dropdown
list attached to it (similar to back button in the browser window)
that shows the complete list of ancestors.

The current solution decision looks a bit more like the easy programmable
instead of easy usable way out.

Comment 13

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Having a history that was never persisted when the filepicker got closed made no
sense (it was useless for your suggested use).

I fully support adding "last 6 dirs saved to" to the dropdown.  Please file a
separate bug on me to do that.

Comment 14

[[e-mail]]

I dont think that completely removing the up button was such a good idea:
while it speeds up going to a far ancestor, it makes searching the levels
upwards extremely clumsy. Also the up button had a clear semantic while 
the "look in" clashes with a potential "recent directories" or "favorites"
list of directories. I still believe that having an up button (with a nice
icon or "up" in it) amended with the ancestor list would have been the
better solution (even windows users know how to handle the up button
so it cant be that complicated for nivices.)

Comment 15

[Peter Trudelle]

verified