Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!braner
From: braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: fsel_input
Message-ID: <3951@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 88 17:07:35 GMT
References: <8802250623.AA17637@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: braner@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (braner)
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 58
Summary: Recent postings not satisfactory

[]

Lambert Schomaker posted some ideas on how file selection could be done
in a completely different manner from the "fsel" dialog box.

Another example is the file selector box in the Laser C shell, which is not
at all the standard GEM box.  It has a small window with the filenames listed
in it.  Directory names have an "open" button next to them, just like they way
they appear in the desktop when one chooses "view in text".  Double-clicking
on a directory entry opens the directory.  Clicking on a "close" button at the
top left corner of the window closes a directory, returning to it's parent.
If the directory displayed is the root directory of the drive, clicking on
the "close" button displays a directory of drives, like this:

	<> A:
	<> B:
	...

(The <> is supposed to mean the standard "open" button.)
I like this arrangement since the whole thing is compact, and operates
in the same conceptual way the desktop does.

In contrast, two alternative fsel boxes posted recently (under the names
"filefix" and "itembox") add a button for each drive.  That's just clutter
in my view.  I do like the nice touch of requiring only one click (not a
double-click) on directory names to open them.  The PD one of the two
("filefix") is buggy, though: it works fine the first time, bombs on the
second (at least if anything unusual happenned the first time).

My biggest complaints about the GEM fsel box have NOT been addressed by
the posted alternatives.  Here is my wish list, if anybody who's into
writing such things wants ideas...

The drive:\directory\subdirectory\*.* entry drives me nuts.
For one thing, the "*.*" should be the default, without the need
to type it.  Then there's the very limited editing of that string.
If it says "A:\*.*" and I just want to change the 'A' to 'B', I have
to press ESC to clear it all, then retype the whole mess.  Why can't
I position the cursor anywhere in the string with the mouse, Mac style?
(yeah, I know, Apple's lawyers would get mad...)  If the "*.*" was
implicit it wouldn't be so bad.

Then comes the worst part.  After laboriously typing in the path, I
ALWAYS, automatically, without any thought, hit RETURN.  Which kicks
me out of the fsel box, and I have to start all over again.  Why, oh why,
can't RETURN, at that point, be equivalent to clicking inside the directory
list?  After all, at that point I already have the fingers on the keyboard!

Other suggestions:  can't I be a masochist (?) and simply type the full
pathname, including the file name, into ONE text-edit input field, if I so
prefer?  Why can't the thing remember where I was last time around (the
application, really, should do that) (well, "filefix" tries to do that, but
if my last attempt involved typing in a nonexistant path, it refuses to let
me in at all the next time).

Enough bitching.  I'll sign off and return to the UNIX shell...    :-)

- Moshe Braner