Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!root
From: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Copy and Move with Browser
Message-ID: <1989Aug11.112637.13462@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 11 Aug 89 11:26:37 GMT
Reply-To: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 45


Hi folks!

Don't you have problems COPYing files/directories using Browsers?

I have had much grief because NeXT tends to do MOVING, which is
a destructive operation to the original files/dirs, when what I
really want is COPYing.

I know, I know, I am supposed to hold down the COMMAND key when I want
to COPY. But, it doesn't take much to make a mistake there.
 
Why isn't it the other way around?  It seems more natural
and safe if simple dragging is a COPY operation instead of MOVE.
Is this something which comes from Mac ?
I know it's not just me who's done this, because I've seen it happen
to other people.

I want COPY and MOVE reversed!
That is:

	Drag           --> Copying
	Command + Drag --> Moving

Exception to this is dragging to and from the Black Hole.  That
should default to MOVing.

You should be able to accept that exception, because currently
an operation like dragging an EPS icon into a Draw application
is a copy because the original stays put.  As it is, this is
in a way a contradiction in the user interface.

Otherwise, I can just see it.   Some day soon, I will loan my OD to
a friend who wants to copy something off my disk to hers.  She
does the copying (which is in reality MOVing which she does not
see because she isn't paying attention to that panel.)
She returns my disk.  I find that one of my directory is gone 
completely.

If it is too late to change this, PLEASE at least make the dragged icon
indicate whether the imminent operation is going to be a MOVE or COPY
as soon as the target folder starts to open.

Izumi Ohzawa
izumi@violet.berkeley.edu