[cap-talk] Drag & "Attenuated" Drop?

[James A. Donald]

 >> The thing I had in mind would look something like
 >> http://polacanthus.net/DragNDrop.jpg at drop time.

 > Brr. We need to do better than that, or nobody will
 > want to use it. There are far too many independent,
 > abstractly-expressed options there.

Any time the user has to make security decisions, he
will not understand, will not want to, will not change
his focus of attention away from the task at hand to the
security implications of the task at hand.  So we have
to piggy back permission on designation.

And if we are giving the user a bunch options, we are
not piggy backing.

Drag and drop is 100% designation.  The user says gives
this thing to that thing, possibly with the intent that
it be permanent, as when he moves a file from one
directory to another, possibly with the intent that it
be temporary, as when he drops a text file on a text
editor, or possibly he only intends to move a copy of
the information, leaving the original unaffected. And he
wants the computer to figure out what he means.  If you
ask him what he means, he will get mighty pissed.

The software managing the drag and drop has to consider
the source and destination, and then figure out what
sort of capability user intends to grant to the
destination.

If you are dragging a file to a program, the usual
intended meaning is that the program can do anything it
likes to the file, and any lesser meaning is going to
irritate the user no end.