| Drag And Drop |
Article Index for Drag |
Information AboutDrag And Drop |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DRAG-AND-DROP | |
| user interface techniques | |
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As a feature, support for drag-and-drop is not found in all Software (ie. iTunes), though it is sometimes a fast and easy-to-learn technique for users to perform tasks. ACTIONS The basic sequence involved in drag-and-drop is:
Dragging requires more physical effort than moving the same pointing device without holding down any buttons. Because of this, a user cannot move as quickly and precisely while dragging (see Fitts' Law ). However, drag-and-drop operations have the advantage of thoughtfully chunking together two operands (the object to drag, and the drop location) into a single action 1. Extended dragging and dropping (as in graphic design) can stress the mousing hand. A design problem appears when the same button selects and drags items. Imprecise movement can cause a dragging when the user just want to select. Another problem is that the target of the dropping can be hidden under other objects. The user would have to stop the dragging, make both the source and the target visible and start again. This issue has been dealt with in Mac OS X with the introduction of Exposé . HISTORY The first drag & drop implementation for Windows was a shareware program called Aporia by that supported drag & drop, the trash icon. In Aporia/WinTools all icons had functions that could be obtained by double clicking the left mouse button, by clicking on the right mouse button, or by dragging onto one of several functional icons, such as printing, copying, viewing, and other actions. If an icon was double-clicked on and ran a program, the icon changed to indicate that a program was running, and if it was then dragged to the trash, the program was exited. (factoid: A defect in the implementation lead to a workaround of the Windows operating system Aporia Bits ) Subsequently numerous other competitors provided drag & drop desktop replacements to the standard Windows interface including the Norton Desktop, Xerox, NewWave , and Central Point. In Windows 95 , Microsoft prevented developers from taking over the desktop and released a drag & drop model of their own. The Workplace Shell of OS/2 uses dragging and dropping extensively with the Secondary Mouse Button , leaving the primary one for selection and clicking. Its use like that of other advanced Common User Access features distinguished native OS/2 applications from Platform-independent ports. EXAMPLES A common example is dragging an icon on a virtual Desktop to a special Trashcan Icon to delete a File . Further examples include:
FOOTNOTES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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