GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 322816
Show applications list in 'Open With' dialog using a tree instead of a list
Last modified: 2006-04-02 21:33:03 UTC
Applications list in 'Open With' dialog is shown using a global list filled with the item alphabetically ordered. It should be better to have a tree structure, like in gnome 'Applications' menu.
Created attachment 55407 [details] [review] eel-open-with-tree.patch
Created attachment 55408 [details] eel-open-with-tree.png
Thanks for your bug report and your efforts! Usability team: Do you think a long flat list or a nested hierarchy tree is preferable? The latter has the advantage of matching the "Applications" menu, though one might argue that most people want to pick a specific application.
Personally I prefer the flat list; makes for easier scanning and more predictable typeahead keynav. Surely there's only a limited number of applications that most file types can be opened by anyway? Should there ever really be a situation where you see every installed application in this window, if every app is correctly registering its mimetypes? Having said that, I prefer a flat list for the Add to Panel dialog too, but the consensus seems to be in favour of the new categorised one. Some consistency would be nice :/
I will try to explain better why I prefer an ordered tree vs a flat list, if you will not be convinced (indeed I doubt you will change opinion, after all it is just a personal feeling, KDE has a tree :) feel free to close the bug. The issue is that I often have to open (and register to be opened) files without a mime type set. They are mostly dump from serial lines and are called something.tlm, somethingelse.tlc, somethingother.bin or .dump, or .whatever... The file name extensions usually change. From my point of view it is more quick and easy to open a tree stucture, open "Programming" branch and select "Hex Editor" (just 9 entries) as default app for that particular file, than to look at a flat list of almost 120 entries with a double alphabetical order (first capital letters, than small ones). BTW, having an ordered tree, users have a better perception of speed, since the icons are added to the application categories first, and then to the applications itself (which are not immediately visible).
Sorry, but I doubt that many people use Nautilus the way you do. I think you could try to associate the hex editor of your choice using the MIME type "application/octet-stream", if the contents varies and isn't known to the MIME system yet.
*** Bug 334936 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***