Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: System 7 aliases and grouping
Message-ID: <50105@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 6 Jun 91 17:27:55 GMT
References: <5001@ryn.mro4.dec.com> <1991May31.081544.14216@silvlis.com> <1991Jun5.024448.17286@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <13893@goofy.Apple.COM>
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Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
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In article <13893@goofy.Apple.COM> lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) writes:

>What would it mean to drag that kinds of selection?  Some files would be
>copied and others moved?  Or would you always copy (changing the semantics
>of dragging an icon to another place on the same volume).

You could limit the shift-select ability to only those icons that are visible
in their repective windows.  Dragging icons from other volumes would result in
a copy, those from same windows would result in a dialog asking "Move or Copy?"

>How do you display such a selection when some of the item may be in obscured
>or closed windows?  It sounds like an easy feature to implement, but when
>you start to think about it you run into issues such as these that have to
>be resolved.

The issues aren't that hard to resolve if you don't limit the solutions to
only those that are obvious or workable by the least sophisticated user.
The great thing about having feedback from a large number of users is that
you can usually get good solutions for most of those problems.  The difficulty
comes when you have design considerations that they might not agree with.

I just wish we could get some of these features as "professional" options.  You
could even make them harder to get at so novices wouldn't nuke their machines
accidentally.