[ENH] BrowseWithDnD

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Sun Jul 27 05:05:35 UTC 2003


> > Yes, that's why I make sure it's off. I am forever 
> > accidentally picking up little blue things in the browser and 
> > it gets rather annoying after a more than a minute or two. 
> 
> Hm ... you and Scott must be pretty weird clickers (so to speak ;-) given
> that with the default fonts you have to move the mouse about a full list
> element's height before it starts dragging ;-) What you need is a bit of ...
> hm ... what's the english equivalent of "Zielwasser"?! ;-)
> 

I remember this behavior now.  It's really weird if you aren't expecting
it.  Those blue things have actually scared me a little, too.  I
remember wondering what will happen when I drop it.  I remember
wondering what *did* happen, if I dropped it before I realized I had
grabbed something.

Incidentally, note that sloppy UI actions are perfectly legit a lot of
times.  If people are used to a UI where click and press are the same
thing, then they aren't careful to distinguish them.  Thus there is an
element of habit, in addition to whether they have the mouse skills of a
Quake champion.

Anyway, here's two simple tweaks that should help, should someone get
motivated to end the DnD divide between Squeak users:

	1. Don't show the blue thingie unless they drag all the way outside of
the list pane.

	2. However, immediately do show a highlight on the *source* item, that
only goes away when the mouse button is released.

This combination would seem to get rid of little blue thingies that will
never be dropped anywhere, while still letting people see what they are
trying to drag when Michael I mean when whoever tries to DnD something
on purpose.

In the mean time, I guess I was wrong and the preference has a real use,
after all.


Lex



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