GEdit interface suggestion

[Andy Somerville]

On 5/9/06, John Nilsson <john at milsson.nu> wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-05-05 at 18:32 +0200, Francesco L. wrote:
> > I think the "Save" button on the toolbar should be greyed-out when the file is already saved,
> > like in OpenOffice.
>
> I think this is an awful idea. I REALLY hate this "feature" in OO.

>From the people I have talked to, I think those who dislike this
feature in the minority.

> I use the save button not only to move data from RAM to disk. I mainly
> use it end a line of thought, or when ever I do a mental context switch.
> Hitting that save button meas "Yea, I'm sure. Next!"
>
> Many times I just lean back to think for a moment, hitting the save
> button from time to time, each time to end that thought, or doing
> another iteration of it.

Im sure you must realize that this is probably an idiomatic method of
use. As such, you are likely in the severe minority of people who
would object in this way.

> It is also true that when I cannot press the button, I do NOT think: "ah
> it's already saved, good." I think. WTF the software is broken, I cant
> use the save function, is the HD offline? Why is it impossible to save
> at this time? Should I be nervous? Will my data get lost because of this
> inability? I know the software is trying to say that the data is in
> sync, but can I really trust it? I don't trust software enough to let it
> make that kind of decisions for me!"

I think for many people the greyed out save button is intuitive, and
this context clue is used in many peices of sofware. Look at firefox
for examle: the Stop button is disabled if pressing it would have no
effect.

However, it is worth pointing out that there is also a significant
amount of software which does not use this clue.

Just my two cents.

     Andy