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> So, imagine I have a browser window open asking me to upload a file. If I have that file open, why should I navigate the directory hierarchy in the open panel
by Tijdreiziger 6y ago
> So, imagine I have a browser window open asking me to upload a file. If I have that file open, why should I navigate the directory hierarchy in the open panel? I can just drag the proxy icon for that document straight into the open panel. Bam, the open panel is pointing at the correct location.
On Windows you can drag the file right onto the 'Browse...' button on the web page. (this does require some precision, as otherwise you'll open the file in the browser)
> Something shouldn’t act as something else, especially if it’s destructive. That, in my opinion, violates the principle of least surprise — an interface to C or R should not U or D.
Perhaps I'm too used to Windows's idiosyncrasies, but an open/save dialog is an Explorer window (at least in a functional sense). When you drag a file onto it, it does the same thing as an Explorer window. This does not seem that surprising to me.
- zapzupnz 6y ago> On Windows you can drag the file right onto the ‘Browse…’ button I know, but I was illustrating a point about how the open/save panels work. That’s why in the following example, I mentioned that I’d just drag straight into the app. > Perhaps I’m too used to Windows’s idiosyncrasies Yes, you are. If you want an Explorer window, you should open Explorer. When you see a file picker dialog, you don’t see an extra Explorer process spawn nor does that dialog get added to Explorer’s list of windows. > This does not seem surprising to me Because you’re looking at it from a technical level, not a user interaction level. At the interaction level, what is the goal of an open/save panel? To pick a location. It doesn’t fundamentally need to do or be anything more than that. That its default behaviour is destructive is classifiable as ‘surprising’.