308368 - "Delete profile" dialog - Confusing button order under Linux/Gtk and Mac

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Marek Stępień [:marcoos, inactive]]

Currently the delete profile dialog looks like this:

| ...
|  Would you like to delete the profile data files?      |
|                                                        |
|(Delete files)                  (Cancel) (Don't Delete) |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

When using Gnome stock icons, the Don't Delete button even contains the
GTK_STOCK_OK icon.

According to Gnome HIG (to which Firefox usually conforms, at least when the
dialog button ordering is concerned) this should look more like:

| ...
|  Would you like to delete the profile data files?      |
|                                                        |
|                   (Don't Delete)(Cancel)(Delete files) |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

(
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows-alert.html#alert-button-order
)

The button ordering should be (from the right-hand side): Affirmative (agree to
the action proposed in the dialog), Cancel, Alternative (do something else). At
the moment it's alternative, cancel, whitespace, affirmative, which is wrong
(and would be wrong even if Firefox wasn't to conform with the HIG).

So:
1. The button order should be changed
2. The GTK_STOCK_OK stock icon should either (a) not be used here at all or (b)
be set on the "Delete files" button.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: possible patch?

Marek, could you test this patch with various dialogs? If I'm reading the HIG right, this should make Firefox "correct" in all cases, but some dialogs may depend on the other positioning somehow. The dialogs to test are the ones that use the extra buttons:

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=extra2
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/search?string=labelextra

Comment 2

[Marek Stępień [:marcoos, inactive]]

Attachment: Delete files screenshot (with Gavin's patch applied)

Your patch removes the unnecessary whitespace, but the ordering is still wrong:

(Delete files)(Cancel [CANCEL_ICON])(Don't Delete [OK_ICON])

while it should be like this:
(Don't Delete)(Cancel [CANCEL_ICON])(Delete files [OK_ICON])

I am now going to test the other dialogs with your patch.

Comment 3

[Marek Stępień [:marcoos, inactive]]

Attachment: Screenshots: Firefox (with patch applied)

This is how it looks like. I only tested the dialogs that are in some way available in Firefox. 

The windows without decorations were opened by entering their chrome:// path into the Location bar, since I was unable to open them in a normal way (either because they're not accessible normally from Firefox, or I can't trigger their opening).

Also, the safe mode dialog should not have the GTK Cancel stock icon, but it has.

(The problem with icons may be regarded as not important, because Firefox isn't yet officially built with GTK Stock Icons enabled, but this problem will be visible to e.g. users of Ubuntu (and probably Red Hat) builds of Firefox, which already are built with stock icons support enabled.

I didn't test the XPFE dialogs, but they will be all wrong according to HIG, since the more-less correct button ordering is only in mozilla/toolkit apps.

Comment 4

[Marek Stępień [:marcoos, inactive]]

Attachment: Screenshots: Firefox (with patch applied)

Whoops, I attached the same screenshot again.

This is the one described in the previous comment.

Comment 5

[Daniel C]

The Check for Updates Finish button has no icon, while the Hide icon propbably has the wrong icon. Many dialogues should also probably use a Close button (as the Preferences window does) instead of an OK button. The About dialogue is an example of this.

As for the Delete Profile dialogue, the GNOME HIG specifies (under the Default Buttons section) that the default button should not cause a destructive, or irreversible action. That would mean that our buttons should not change. However, the default button does then not fit in with the title (as reported).

A fix for this would be:

Title: Keep Files?

Buttons: (Delete Files) (Cancel) [(Keep Files)]

This solves both problems.

Comment 6

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Marek: thanks a lot for testing! Seems to me like the remaining issues are dialog specific, as such, should be fixed seperately. The "delete files" dialog, for example, could be fixed by switching the lines at:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/toolkit/profile/content/profileSelection.js#262  
Consistency with the other HIGs must be considered though, I haven't looked into it very much.

My patch does make the dialogs more consistent using GTK, right? If so, I think it should be checked in as is, since it only impacts dialog on Linux. Individual dialogs can be further refined afterwards, especially since it may affect other platforms with different guidelines. What do you think?

Comment 7

[Marek Stępień [:marcoos, inactive]]

Attachment: Mac OS X screenshot

Mac OS X version is also affected.

Comment 8

[Marek Stępień [:marcoos, inactive]]

Changing OS to 'All' (though this is just Unix and Mac).