[kde-guidelines] Phrasing of selection teasers

[Diego Moya]

On 4 September 2013 13:05, Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar at autistici.org> wrote:

> How come everyone keeps trying to tell me that dual lists are outdated but
> nobody has come up with an alternative that actually works well yet? As
> soon as I'm presented with a working alternative, I'll happily get rid of
> that pattern.
>
>
Here's your alternative: have a dual list where the multi-selection list is
made with checkbox-enabled elements. Checking an item instantly adds it to
the second list. Get rid of the right-arrow "add item" and left-arrow
"remove item" buttons; they're less efficient that the checkbox. (If you
want to make removal of one item efficient, make a click on the "selected"
list select the corresponding item on the "multi-selection" list.).  The
only time where the "two arrows" idiom is the best option is the rare case
where you need multi-select addition *and* multi-select removal of many
items; I can't think a single example where that would be preferable to the
simpler interaction of the checkbox list.

For cases where remembering which items are selected is not important (such
as wizards and one-time configuration process), the dual list pattern is
overkill; this is why you rarely ever see it on the web any more. In those
cases, providing a single list is encouraged; the dual list should not be
recommended.

If remembering what items are included is important but removing them is
not, again the second list doesn't need to be a list control; a text area
showing links to selected items would still be preferable.

See, there *are* alternatives that work even better than the cumbersome
dual list idiom; they may not be totally general for all possible cases,
but recommending a one-size-fits-all pattern is not the optimal when there
are lighter alternatives for specific cases.
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