[Thunar-dev] Location Bar ala Firefox

[Brian]

Benedikt Meurer wrote:

> In the new mockup, it'll popup a separate 'Open Location' dialog.
>
> The Firefox-like location bar on the bottom is a cool thing, but aside 
> from the wow-effect, it adds very little usabilty currently (and 
> introduces a11y problems).

I'd say that's because currently the auto-complete isn't implemented. 
Without that, it is a useless wow-effect.

>
> Btw. I don't consider 'window clutter' a valid argument against the 
> separate dialog.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one...

> The dialog will open centered on the main window; and if your window 
> manager's focus management is not totally b0rked (like 'focus exactly 
> under pointer' in kwin), you'll have no problems using the dialog - in 
> fact, you already do so with GtkFileChooser, so don't tell me it's 
> impossible. :-)
>
But that doesn't mean I like it :-)

> I think both solutions have their specific advantages and 
> disadvantages. Popping up a dialog makes it more obvious to users, as 
> that's the way he's used to. The Firefox-like way - if done right ;-) 
> - is nice, since the location bar is associated with the main view (or 
> should be associated with the main view).
>
> The issues with the firefox-like way (talking about 
> http://www.xfce.org/~benny/tmp/20050319-thunar_go3.png):
>
>  * How to associated this visually with the main view?
>  * What about different themes?
>  * What about the close button?
>  * What about spacing (the current frame border width makes it look 
> very busy)?
>  * What about a11y? E.g. people with motoric disabilities may run into 
> trouble with the focus-out handling.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cool feature, but the cool-factor 
> is less important than the usability-factor. So atleast the issues 
> mentioned about needs to be addressed first.
>
> Ideas? Suggestions? :o)
>
Usability for one group of people means a quick and unobtrusive keyboard 
search, usability to others means a dialog. I'm fine having the dialog 
be the default, in fact that's a good idea for the reasons you stated 
above. Is there a way we could keep the "firefox bar" as an option as well?