Re: [sugar] #8041 HIGH 9.1.0: Sugar lacks a Trash/Recycle bin system

2008-08-20 Thread Eben Eliason
This is getting a little out of hand, here.  Let's break this down
again, because I think we're all arguing for pretty much the same
thing.

On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 12:19 AM, Bastien [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Eduardo Heleno [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 But my point was that, at the moment, you can choose to Erase an item, and
 it's gone forever. I expect that many kids will do this, and will at some 
 point
 regret erasing some item.

 Yes.  This is a request that has been made here in Haïti.

The issue of deletion confirmation is covered under ticket
http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7859.  I flagged it as blocks?:8.2.0, but
I don't think it is going to be nominated as a blocker at this point
unless there is a strong push for it.  This is, at least for now,
independent of the trash can issue itself.

On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 1:27 AM, Bastien [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Martin Langhoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 AFAIK, the plan is to *discourage* deletion until the disk is getting
 full. When you are getting to disk-full, trashcan doesn't help.

 Yes it does: it contains entries that the system can safely delete
 without forcing the user to go thru the entries and sort them out on
 the fly.

This is no less true in the future Journal design.  Anything which has
been previously erased can be transparently deleted by the system
without another prompt.  The Journal should be following a
lazy-deletion strategy, making it really no different from the trash
can you speak of.  The only difference is how the erased but not yet
truly gone files get represented to the user.

 People now want deletion because the Journal is not optimal.  They want
 deletion to sort out entries in the Joural and get rid of unfinished or
 useless entries.  With too many entries, the (current 703/708) Journal
 becomes unusable.

I do recognize this.  The one detail we could add to potentially solve
this argument is a button which turns on/off visibility of erased
entries.  That is, a button which basically shows and hides trashed
files by toggling their visibility inline within the Journal, in
addition to  a way to view only those files as well.

 When you are running out off disk space, we have two cases:

  - ds-backup has been doing its job, there's a copy of the files in
 the XS, so the journal has old-and-backed-up files that it can decide
 to rm

 I'm afraid XS servers won't be of use in *many* schools.

That's fine.  The backup solution is an enhancement, not a
requirement.  Consider the possible states for entries:

1. Normal: file stored locally on the XO
2. Normal+Backup: file stored locally on the XO, and also on the server
3. Lazy-erased: file stored locally on the XO, but rendered
differently to indicate transient state
4. Lazy-erased+Backup: same as above, but also backed up to the server
5. Erased: not stored locally on XO
6. Erased+backup: not stored locally on XO, but still available on the server

States 1, 3, and 5 are the basic states without backup in the picture.
 They map directly onto a file, a trashed file, and a file which has
been emptied from the trash, respectively.  Without a server, you can
still recover anything in state 3.  When you have a server, you can
recover anything in states 3, 4, and 5 (call these the recoverable
states).  In all of these recoverable states, we will visually
represent a the entry in a way distinct from normal, present
entries, and the entries in these states will have buttons which allow
them to be a) recovered or b) permanently erased.

If we want, we can be a bit more clever about which cases require
deletion confirmation (based upon whether or not the action results in
a recoverable state), but we could simply ask for confirmation all the
time for consistency.  Or, never.

  - no old-and-backed-up files we can safely remove? Prompt the user

 I'm curious whether someone did this job of being prompted.
 How long does it take?  If you can't remember what a file contains,
 checking if it's safe to delete it by trying to reopen it might be
 tiring.

The Journal does (will do) better than many other systems.  The
preview is sadly underutilized at the moment, but it should provide a
hint without the need to open it.  We have a few ideas about how to
encourage naming and tagging as well, which will improve this
situation a lot.  Finally, we have the notion of favorites in the
Journal.  If we encourage their use as well (which we will in the next
version, since it will be possible to filter the list to show only
favorites, thus eliminating the unwanted entries which currently make
it difficult to find things), then it should be easy to at least
preserve the things you've already indicated in the past mean
something to you.  We'll also have true versioning in the future, so
it will be possible to prune the version tree, keeping fewer
intermediate versions the further back in time we look.

2008/8/20  [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 prompt the user, interrupting whatever they were trying to get
 done?  

Re: [sugar] #8041 HIGH 9.1.0: Sugar lacks a Trash/Recycle bin system

2008-08-20 Thread pgf
eben wrote:
 ...
  I hope this clarifies my position on this subject a bit, and paints a

it does.  thank you.

paul

  picture which is really just a different perspective on the usual
  trash can metaphor, rather than an abandonment of it.
  
  - Eben

=-
 paul fox, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
___
Sugar mailing list
Sugar@lists.laptop.org
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar


Re: [sugar] #8041 HIGH 9.1.0: Sugar lacks a Trash/Recycle bin system

2008-08-20 Thread Bastien
Eben Eliason [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 The issue of deletion confirmation is covered under ticket
 http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7859.  I flagged it as blocks?:8.2.0, but
 I don't think it is going to be nominated as a blocker at this point
 unless there is a strong push for it.  

I'm not fond of confirmation alerts, no problem if this is not in 8.2.0!

 This is, at least for now, independent of the trash can issue
 itself.

To me it's not completely independant: a trashbin (or an equivalent)
feature) functions as a virtual confirmation system.  I think having 
a trashbin somehow spares the cost of confirmation alerts.

 The Journal should be following a
 lazy-deletion strategy, making it really no different from the trash
 can you speak of.  

Ok, fair enough

 The only difference is how the erased but not yet
 truly gone files get represented to the user.

Yes, that the difference I'm interested in :)

 I do recognize this.  The one detail we could add to potentially solve
 this argument is a button which turns on/off visibility of erased
 entries.  

Let me guess: this button is usually what the trashbin icon does?

 That is, a button which basically shows and hides trashed
 files by toggling their visibility inline within the Journal, in
 addition to  a way to view only those files as well.

Ok, good.  The  button itself would be visible.  The trashed files
wouldn't be visible until the button pressed.  When the button is
pressed, only trashed entries are listed.

 3. Lazy-erased: file stored locally on the XO, but rendered
 differently to indicate transient state

Ok, great - for me lazy-erased files should not be displayed unless the
trashbin button is pressed (in which case only trashed files are listed.
Sorry to repeat myself...)

 If we want, we can be a bit more clever about which cases require
 deletion confirmation (based upon whether or not the action results in
 a recoverable state), but we could simply ask for confirmation all the
 time for consistency.  Or, never.

Never :)  (never as a default - maybe this could be customisable.)

If the default is to rely on confirmation, this will not encourage users
to lazy-erase their files.  With no backup system, it's becomes more
important to encourage them to be selective about what they keep,
encouraging regular cleaning up.

 I hope this clarifies my position on this subject a bit, and paints a
 picture which is really just a different perspective on the usual
 trash can metaphor, rather than an abandonment of it.

Ok, great - things are very clear now.

Can't wait for it to be implemented :)

-- 
Bastien
___
Sugar mailing list
Sugar@lists.laptop.org
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar