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From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (Trashcan)
Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments
Message-ID: <27293@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 31 Dec 88 17:04:14 GMT
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com> <673@cogsci.ucsd.EDU> <1789@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <8620@alice.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley
Lines: 37

In article <8620@alice.UUCP> debra@alice.UUCP () writes:
>There are 2 problems:
>- moving the icon for a diskette to the trash can does not eject the
>  diskette completely, so even when I put a trash can in the right position
>  the diskette does not end up in the can :-)

It is possible to place something on top of something else, but not in it.
The Macintosh hilites the destination if you drag an object so that it
will go _in_ it.

>- moving the icon for the hard disk does not eject it. when i first wanted
>  to try this several of my colleagues got very upset and prevented me from
>  trying this :-)

This is a useful and harmless command.  It does "eject" the hard disk: it
makes it inaccessible until you re-boot.  It is useful before running
software that you don't want to know about your hard disk.  (Of course,
the system won't let you do this if you running off the hard disk. You
have to boot from a floppy before you can do this (or switch-launch to a
floppy.)

The drag-floppy-to-trashcan-to-eject is an idiom that developed over time.
New users don't get told the whole story, and they don't read the manual,
so they are distressed by this.  What is really going on is a shorthand
for two separate commands:

1.) Using "Eject" from the file menu.
2.) Dragging the ghost image of the deleted floppy to the trashcan,
because  we really don't want it taking up desktop space.

The old, two step process is still available, for the nervous, but it is
no longer _required_ as it was in the earliest releases of the Finder.

Experts, when you teach the mac, teach the old way first! (Sheesh, there
is no pleasing people. The novices want strict metaphors so they will know
how things will behave, and the experts want to reduce their hand motion
for frequently used operations.)