+new flyout panel -- multiple inconsistencies in naming and behavior

[williamstein]

I love the +New flyout panel and for just typing a filename in and hitting shift+enter, it works very well. However, there are a bunch of buttons below the input at the top, and within these buttons there are inconsistencies with the other ways of making files in cocalc.

• [ ] In the new flyout panel the button is labeled "Directory", whereas in the new page it is called "New Folder".
• [ ] In the new flyout panel, clicking the "Directory" button is just a state change and does NOT create the folder. On the new page, clicking that button DOES create the folder immediately.
• [ ] This is a major difference, and leads to a new bug, where if you then clear the input box, the filename is messed up (has a dot at the end) due to internally using ext="/" to mean "folder mode" in some places but not others.
• [ ] I think there is nowhere else in cocalc where we have "state buttons" like this. Basically this is recreating the "radio" UI pattern (i.e., you can select one option from a list), but in a non-standard way using buttons. It's nonstandard because antd does have a button radio control, which is different.

This approach also involves more steps than the new page: the user (1) types the filename, then (2) they click the type button, then (3) they go back to the top and hit another button. Is three steps really necessary?

There is the +New dropdown in the file explorer. It uses "Folder" (not "Directory") for the name. After the user (1) selects the type, then (2) they edit the filename and create the file. It feels to me more like two steps, though arguably is also 3.

[williamstein]

The tooltip for the "Directory" button was "Create a subdirectory in the current directory. You can also click the file type dropdown after the filename.". This is wrong because:

• it does not actually create a directory when you click on it.
• There is no "directory" item in the dropdown.

I did just push a commit to change this to "Switch to creating a subdirectory in the current directory instead of a file." as a band aide.

[mancellin]

My 2 cents: the most natural workflow for me is to

• first choose a kind of file/directory,
• then give it a name.

So the dropdown menu in the file explorer is the most convenient (but I wasn't aware of it before). The flyout panel is okay, even if I have to interact with it from the bottom to the top.