upsets Users for a reason [LWN.net]

upsets Users for a reason

Posted Mar 25, 2010 16:00 UTC (Thu) by foom (subscriber, #14868)
In reply to: upsets Users for a reason by drag
Parent article: Ubuntu and window controls

> Putting a destructive item like that just spaced a pixel or 3 away from one of the most frequently
> utilized UI elements in a application is just not good design.

Any application that tosses your unsaved changes when you hit the close button, without so much
as prompting you is simply broken...the close button should never actually be destructive.

Of course, do you have a point regarding the interaction between closing a document when it *is*
saved to disk and the completely broken copy/paste implementation that linux prides itself on
having.

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upsets Users for a reason

Posted Mar 25, 2010 16:10 UTC (Thu) by farnz (guest, #17727) [Link]

Even when it's a seemingly non-destructive action, it's annoying. If I close a PDF I'm reading, or a web page, I have to find it again (somehow - history in the browser, knowing where it is in the filesystem), and get back to my previous position. I've also lost my train of thought, and have to settle back in, as I've been distracted by finding the document again.

upsets Users for a reason

Posted Mar 27, 2010 9:50 UTC (Sat) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]

> Any application that tosses your unsaved changes when you
> hit the close button, without so much as prompting you is
> simply broken...the close button should never actually be
> destructive.

What a pretty idea.

Unfortunately it runs into trouble when it encounters complex
multipurpose programs like a web browser. If the browser refused to
close because you had a textarea in it that you entered a character
into somewhere, you would not be happy. How about INPUT fields
entered by javascript, or pre-populated by javascript?

upsets Users for a reason

Posted Mar 27, 2010 15:08 UTC (Sat) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]

My browser *does* do that, and I *am* happy. I haven't noticed it having any false positives.

It says:

Are you sure you want to close this window?

You have entered text on Comment editor [LWN.net]. If you close the window, your changes will
be lost. Do you want to close the window anyway?

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