On Monday 25 Aug 2003 12:05 am, Guy Harris wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2003 at 01:35:36AM +0100, Richard Urwin wrote:
> > There are no stock objects for Import and Export. Rather than
> > adding simple labled buttons, I decided this way was the lesser of
> > the two evils.
>
> That explains why they're called "Save As" and "Open" for GTK2;
> however, it doesn't explain why they're not called "Save As" and
> "Open" for GKT1.2.
>
> If Import and Export are the "right" labels, then simple labeled
> buttons, rather than different names in GTK1.2 and GTK2, is probably
> the lesser of two evils.
My point was that it looked odd with all but two buttons having icons.
>
> If Import and Export are no more "right" than Save As and Open, then
> they should be called Save As and Open in GTK1.2 as well.
>
> I.e., the labels should be based on what makes sense to a user, not
> what the API makes easier - and what makes sense to a user doesn't, I
> suspect, depend on whether they're using a GTK 1.2[.x] or GTK 2.x
> version of the application.
Good point.
>
> I'm not sure where "Import" and "Export" are used in various GUIs - I
> think they might be used in some cases where you're loading some data
> file from another application, and saving data in a format for
> another application. If that's what they typically mean, perhaps
> "Save As" is better than "Export"; I'm not sure about "Open", though
> - perhaps "Load" is more appropriate? (I think that's what Network
> Monitor, for example, uses to load a filter expression from a named
> file.)
There's no stock "Load" either.
"Save As" particularly, has a close association with "Save", which does
not open any dialogs, so you cannot specify "Only Marked Filters", and
it only saves to the user's filter file, not the last file specified in
"Save As". "Open" implies closing the existing document and loading
only the opened one.
Import and Export imply a different behavior to Open and Save, with more
control over the process, I don't think there is necessarily any
inherent "another application". So I think I'll keep the labels as they
are in GTK1 and use simply labled butons in GTK2.
Not tonight though, it's past midnight and I'm off to bed.
--
Richard Urwin
