GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 315523
Entering a filename in "Open Location" dialog reveals it instead of opening it
Last modified: 2005-11-11 20:29:15 UTC
[1] complains that entering a filename in the "Open Location" dialog of the file chooser does not open it instantly but instead reveals it in the GtkFileChooser, forcing you to confirm your choice twice. This seems to be reasonable for folders, since the user might want to browse deeper in its hierarchy, but for files it is IMHO obvious that a final choice was requested. Usability crew, was there any rationale behind this? [1] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/go.shtml?read=1&msg_id=8791751&forum_id=84431
I see that the OSX dialog does the same thing, so perhaps the folks who designed the gtk+ version just drew a little too much inspiration from that :) There is some justification for it on OSX-- you don't have the helpful filename completion while you're typing that you get in gtk+, so the selection allows you to see whether you've actually typed a valid filename at all. Also, if you set the OSX dialog to browser rather than list/tree mode, you get the opportunity to view all of the file's Information (the equivalent of File->Properties in nautilus) before you open it, which you don't in gtk+. So, +1 from me on altering the gtk+ behaviour-- it's annoyed me a good few times too.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 158423 ***