GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 98365
Search Tool: sort indicators are inverted
Last modified: 2009-08-15 18:40:50 UTC
The sort order indicator arrows on the columns are inverted. An "up" arrow means ascending: so "A" before "Z", "little" before "big", "old" before "new". A "down" arrow, of course, means the opposite.
Braden: here, in every program I use, an arrow 'v' means A before Z. And '^' means Z before A. The search tool has the same behaviour than the other. Or do I misunderstand something ? I'm marking this as NOTABUG, but if I misunderstood, feel free to reopen.
You don't misunderstand, but you're mistaken. What programs are you using? They're wrong; file bugs. "up" means ascending, "down" means descending, of course. Ascending alphabetical order is 'A'->'Z'. Ascending chronological order is oldest->newest. Ascending numerical order is smallest->biggest. If you look at an "up" arrow, you'll see that the small part is at the top, and the big part is at the bottom. That's the way the listing should be, too. Evolution gets this right. The OpenOffice file selector gets this right. Windows Explorer gets this right. I don't have a Mac handy, but I'd be very suprised if its file manager behaved differently from the above applications.
Sorry. I came on too strongly there. But the fact is, every application I've ever used outside of GNOME 2, "up" means ascending order and "down" means descending order. And given the definitions of "ascending" and "descending", that strikes me as a logical and obvious mapping. It bewilders and frustrates me that GNOME 2 Thinks Different (and in the case of Nautilus, different from itself, even). So I apologize for my shortness. But even if you don't agree with the logic, *please* take a *serious* look at established convention here.
Okay, let's have input from the usability people. My personal feeling is that the current behaviour is more logical (but I don't know why... maybe just a habit), but it's totally subjective.
Seriously, what applications (besides Nautilus) were you referring to?
The sort order of tree view columns is not a gnome-search-tool issue. The sort order is determined by gtk+. This is not a gome-search-tool bug. Instead, you should take this issue up with the gtk+ maintainers.
Filed bug 98773 against gtk+.