Daniel B. wrote:
When you're looking at a directory using a graphical interface, a lot: - You have to open or at least switch to a different window. - You have to type or copy and paste the directory name. - You won't get the same data displayed by the graphical interface (which you'd expected it to print if it supported printing).
Not that I dont see your point, but why should a graphical interface emit text? If you want to print a graphical representation of the filesystem, print a screen shot. If you want a text file, use the text inteface.
I think that to some degree you're confusing 'want' with 'need'. I'm sure different people have different ideas on what you're talking about is supposed to do, or would want slightly different functionality, etc.
If or when one wants to use a command line, that's fine, but when one it using a graphic interface, it should still support printing directory listings.
I can relate to this. I found myself using imagemagic often to manipulate photos taken with a digital camera. I use nautilus/gnome as my desktop environment. After a while it got annoying to have to keep dropping into a shell to rotate, scale or montage the picture(s). So I wrote a couple pygtk scripts and put them in the scripts dir for nautilus. So now I can select a bunch of pictures, right click and send them to the wrapper. Up pops a gtk2 interface that I can use to set options like rotational direction, or filetype to output as a montage. It fits in with the rest of the desktop and I dont have to keep opening/closing terminals.
They're guified shell scripts really. Might be one way to scratch your itch. They serve a specialized need and aren't flexible. But if its a common task you're doing, thats one way to solve the problem.
Not sure, but I do believe kde has a similar functionality. -- Mental