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Kroc / MaSS1VE

The Master System Sonic 1 Visual Editor
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Add button for launching common dialogue on ROM form #7

Open tannerhelland opened 11 years ago

tannerhelland commented 11 years ago

Because MaSS1VE doesn't include a common dialog for adding the selected ROM, the user must open a Windows Explorer window (or similar) in order to find the ROM, and drag it onto the initial form.

However, because the initial form insists on staying on top of all other windows, it is nearly impossible to navigate Windows Explorer if it appears behind the MaSS1VE window! Instead, the user is forced to minimize the MaSS1VE window, navigate to the proper Windows Explorer location, restore MaSS1VE, manually move the windows side-by-side, then drag the ROM into place.

(It may also be worth considering the inclusion of a common dialog interface, if desired - in my case, the current drag-and-drop workflow actually required more steps than a simple "Open File" -> navigate to location -> click OK.)

Kroc commented 11 years ago

The form is draggable, so it's easy to get out of the way, though I could include a caption button to turn the always-on-top on/off?

The reason I don't want a common dialog is that it presents a different UI that is parallel to Explorer. I personally find common dialogs too small, too fiddly and always a road block (because they're never in the right folder to begin with!). The drag and drop approach is less code, so it was the easiest thing I could implement this early on. I will await further feedback on the drag-drop once I start distributing binaries.

tannerhelland commented 11 years ago

It doesn't help that common dialog integration is even more of a hassle in VB. :/

My primary concern is that an always-on-top window is out of place with the whole Windows paradigm. It's quite striking to have a program suddenly force itself atop all other windows, especially when that window requires you to interact with another window!

Another concern is the average user's unfamiliarity with Windows Explorer in general. Many people primarily interact with Explorer via common dialogs (e.g. how many laypeople could even tell you what Windows Explorer is?) I guess the assumption is that users can at least navigate to My Computer or something similar...?

Perhaps a stop-gap would be a link on the front page to "open Downloads folder" or "Documents folder"? It is a challenge that you have no predictable place to send users, unlike say "Pictures" or "Music". (Although, if you're going to provide a way to spawn a particular folder in Explorer, you may as well use a common dialog anyway!)

Anyway, awaiting further feedback sounds useful. If you were really feeling ambitious, a "search for ROM" option might be nice, though the amount of work involved would not be pretty!

Kroc commented 11 years ago

I could place a button on the ROM form to launch a dialogue, that would give us the best of both worlds, but that would be dependent on me writing a decent common dialogue class so it won't be until later (the drag and drop only has to be done once)