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From: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: De-macification of the Amiga (Re: The Amiga's Future)
Message-ID: <1991Jun23.162103.12891@news.iastate.edu>
Date: 23 Jun 91 16:21:03 GMT
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In article <1991Jun23.044133.23463@neon.Stanford.EDU>, torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>
>>    Workbench already has a drag and drop like operation, for copying
>>    files (ie: drag an icon over a disk icon, and it gets copied, etc).
>
>  Does the disk icon auto-highlight?

   No it doesn't, and this is a very big beef I have with Workbench 2.0.  
With WB2.0, when you are copying files into drawers, the only way you can
guarantee that the file will go where you want it to go is to open the 
drawer and drop the icon into the drawer's window.  This is a needless
extra step that is totally eliminated on the MAC with auto-highlighting.

   
>
>>    Auto selecting would be a problem, btw, because if the file icon is
>>    large and covers two or three application icons, how will the OS know
>>    which one to select? 
>
>  Always go for where the mouse pointer is pointing.  The 'hot spot' is 
>where the action happens.

   This is not intuitive.  It is also confusing, because hwo can the user
see which icon the mouse pointer is currently 'over' if the icon being 
dragged is covering up a bunch of the screen?  

>
>>And if you go for some nice solution of using
>>    the position of the mouse pointer to judge, then you don't need to
>>    autoselect at all - just use the mouse pointer in the first place...
>
>  This cuts against the one of the core tenets of human interface design -
>namely "VISUAL FEEDBACK".  A good user interface will always try and
>provide immediate visual feedback to indicate the result of completing 
>the action.  In the case of dragging and dropping, auto-highlighting the
>appropriate application while the user drags the document icon indicates 
>to the user that if he lets go now, this is the application which will
>get launched.
>  If you don't highlight at all, what happens when your icons are all
>crammed together, and it's difficult to tell exactly which one the mouse
>pointer is on top of??
>  If we were to carry your argument further, then why would you bother
>highlighting menu items as you drag the mouse down the menu?  By your 
>reasoning, you can see where the mouse pointer is... why bother 
>auto-highlighting?
>  I suggest you try a menu system without auto-highlighting, and then
>come back and tell us whether it's a good idea or not... (Hint:  what
>happens when you're halfway between two menu items?)

   (Left in because it irks people! :-)

>
>
>
>
>-- 
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu   
>"If it weren't for your gumboots, where would you be?   You'd be in the
>hospital, or in-firm-ary..."  F. Dagg

  -------------------------------------------------------------
 / Marc Barrett  -MB- | BITNET:   XGR39@ISUVAX.BITNET        /   
/  ISU COM S Student  | Internet: XGR39@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU   /      
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\        The great thing about standards is that          /
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