Re: new file open dialog
On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 11:01, Jeff Waugh wrote:
<snip>
> Sure, it looks weird, but there's not much you can do if you a) want to have
> the not-boring file selector and b) want to stay API/ABI compatible. Perhaps
> another design would work.
>
> Note that I'm not really fussed about it. I think it's a greasy precedent to
> include unnecessary patches, but it will satisfy the noisy people who are
> satisfied by skin-deep changes.
<snip>
I have been waiting for a simple patch like this since I first saw the
feature in Helix Gnome oh so many moons ago. I may be of a minority but
for me this is a very necessary patch as the stock GTK file selector is
virtually useless to the unfamiliar user. The drop-down at the top
confuses people more often than not (ie: how do I get back to where I
just was...), although that's probably the second most important feature
to me personally with the most important being the tab completion. :)
I have my Mother and Father migrated from the dark side to Debian stable
(with Gnome backport) at their small carpet store and one of their major
complaints was about how difficult it is to get around the file
selector. This patch recently made it into the Gnome2.2 backport and
this weekend they were very impressed and thankful for the change. For
them this patch is absolutely necessary. Now that there is a patch for
it, even if it's taken out of Debian I'll end up having to rebuild GTK
with the patch. This scenario isn't as bad dealing with the endless
hassles of them misplacing their files. It seems you can teach an old
dog new tricks but how many they remember to use is a whole other story
:)
Here's my pragmatic 2 cents, use environment variables to enable /
manipulate the simple things people have been complaining about:
# toggle visibility, non-null means display the buttons
GTK_FILE_SELECTOR="TRUE"
# directory to use for the home button
GTK_FILE_SELECTOR_HOME=$HOME
# directory to use for the documents button
GTK_FILE_SELECTOR_DOCS=$HOME/Documents
# directory to use for the desktop button
GTK_FILE_SELECTOR_DESK=$HOME/.gnome-desktop
I'm not 100% on the ball with C these days (too much Perl...) but I may
be willing to give this a shot if no one else is up for the task. We
could have it default to non-visible and for those that want/need it
they can turn it on (or vice-versa).
There's always a win-win scenario with Free Software... it's just a
matter of coding it!
--
Kevin C. Krinke <kckrinke@opendoorsoftware.com>
Open Door Software Inc.
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