At 19:05 10/07/99 , Alexander Staubo wrote:
I notice that the folder contents screen has been changed in Zope 2: the "Add" button is gone, and instead the "add new object" combo box now automatically adds an object when you select the metatype to insert.
I doubt that this is a good design choice. First of all, this certainly isn't how combo boxes normally behave. Secondly, personally I tend to browse a combo box with the mouse or the keyboard. Certainly the latter isn't possible now. The "Add" button is an imperative command ("add this!"), and automatically _assuming_ I want to add an object because I chose a metatype from a list isn't. If it were a link, it'd be different, because links are implicitly imperative ("go here!"), but HTML selects/combo boxes really are not.
Having the good old "Add" button adds one extra click to every add operation. Now, how much an improvement is the new method really, I ask, compared to the pains incurred by changing standard behaviour?
In spite of the danger of this becoming a 'me too' email, I say: Me Too! The add button is a clear marker on the page for first-time users and other novices. And indeed, for power users it has now become impossible to use the keyboard to select the right item. I, personally, sometime move to fast with the mouse, and accidentally select the wrong entry. This is not that bad when using a local server, but add any latency, and this becomes very irritating if the interface immediately proceeds to add the selected object. -- Martijn Pieters, Web Developer | Antraciet http://www.antraciet.nl | Tel: +31-35-7502100 Fax: +31-35-7502111 | mailto:mj@antraciet.nl http://www.antraciet.nl/~mj | PGP: http://wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xA8A32149 ------------------------------------------