Talk:Breadcrumb (navigation)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Contains current page?
Does a breadcrumb typically contain the current page? Is there a convention? 74.121.2.213 05:32, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Screenshot
We need a SCREENSHOT For This.
- I added a screenshot of Nautilus, using its (hated by some) implementation of this. Unfortunately, my screenshot application saves in jpg for some reason, so it's all artifact-y. Also, I had to make the thumbnail 300px wide, to make it legible. I hope that's not too big. Stale Fries taste better 22:18, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Poor name
"Breadcrumbs" is an unfortunate metaphor. Hansel and Gretel used stones in their earlier successful navigation; when later they were forced to use breadcrumbs, these were eaten by birds and they got lost. Who coined the term? Is it too late to change it to "pebbles"? jnestorius(talk) 12:32, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- The original usage was in Bernstein, Mark, and Linda Thorsen. Developing Dynamic Documents: Special Challenges for Techical Communicators 34th International Technical Communications Conference. Denver: 1987. Jakob Nielsen cites this in his review papers and in his Hypertext and Hypermedia. See also [http://www.ickn.org/elements/hyper/cyb32.htm], [1]. In fact, the original proposal embraced the idea that breadcrumbs should fade with time, just as "visited link colors" (another manifestation of breadcrumbs) return to normal link colors after a span of time has passed. Revisiting a page you have recently seen in semantically and experientially distinct from revisiting a page you saw months or years before. MarkBernstein 19:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Alternate name suggestions.
Though none of these terms has (in my opinion) the same level of recognition, they might serve as better metaphors.
- "Lilypads" - a reference to frogs leaping from lilypad to lilypad towards a destination. This could better convey the idea that points along a file path can branch in several directions, whereas a bread crumb trails generally seen as linear paths without any branches along the way.
- "Way points" - similar to "lilypads" in terms of implications'
- "Stepping Stones" - as mentioned in another post on the discussion page, Hanzel and Gretel only use crumbs because they run out of stones. Plus, the "stepping stones" cliche/idiom is arguably more will known than the tale of Hanzel & Gretel. Further, this term might benefit & reinforce the existing metaphor of a file "path", as many walking paths in the physical world are still paved with stones.
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by SaturatedPhat (talk • contribs) 08:39, 2 March 2007 (UTC).
--SaturatedPhat 08:43, 2 March 2007 (UTC) -fixed typos
- Although I agree that some of those make more sense, we can't really add them as they would be considered original research (I think that's the right link). Also, those ideas wouldn't really be useful as metaphors to allow the reader to understand the concept, as it's already a fairly simple idea, and it has a good explanation. If you can find sourced uses of these terms elsewhere, though, feel free to add them as alternative terms, and cite them. Stale Fries taste better 22:27, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
