Comment 90 for bug 48671

@David

In principle, you're proposal may makes sense, -first click on the icon, second on the label- but I think in practice this is what is going to happen:

"When I click on a file in Windows to rename I just click 'frantically' on the label until I can it."

Why do I think so? Well, because in general a certain visible icon has particular functions. Functions are activated by single or double clicking on the visible icon. These functions exist irrespective of any other visible icon. This is the case for all other icons or fields on any GUI I can think of. According to your proposal, the label field doesn't have a function first. It acquires a certain function after pressing a different field, the icon field. This kind of implementation deviates completely from everything else the user has learned about graphical interfaces. That is: A visible graphical field has a particular function independent of any other visible graphical field. Now, if a user accidently trips over the rename by click function, he won't understand why he can activate it sometimes and sometimes not. Effect: frantic clicking! This implementation is non-intuitive and very difficult to learn since it deviates from the general behaviour of guis.

I haven't tested this, so this is merely an educated guess. But I think there are good reasons to believe that this is not going to work well.

Therefore, I believe, the rename field must be separate and distinct from the browsing field. The rename field must have the function "rename". The browsing field must have the function "open folder". You rename by clicking on the "rename field". You browse by clicking on the "browsing field". If the rename and browsing fields are too close together, then a double click on the browsing field may easily accidently trigger the rename field. So they must be distinct and separate.

I've made a proposal how you can implement this in list view. Draw a line between the icons and respective labels. Provide a safe distance between icons and names. The icon is the browsing field. the label is the renaming field.

Providing a safe distance between label and icon in icon view is going to be awkward. But someone else made a good proposal here. If you single click an icon, an additional field is shown providing a preview and additional information about the selected icon. This information field is separate and distinct from the browsing icon. The information field contains a label field, which may be edited.

I don't know for sure whether users are going to be happier with these proposals. So testing them - say in a beta release - and asking for feedback and evaluating feedback prior to implementation is very important. I'm glad that you think the windows implementation must be improved. This is definitely so, since multiple users have complained about it.

Regards

kikl