Re: My little wishes list on VFS

[dannym <danny milo gmx net>]

Hi,

Am Samstag, den 31.12.2005, 13:02 +0800 schrieb Shu Hung (Koala):
> Hello,
> 
> I'm not sure if this is the right place to say this,
> but I do have a little comment on VFS.

Looks like the right place :)
> 
> VFS is a great stuff in gnome and I love this very much.
> I think VFS can be better if it can provide these functions:

>      1. let user to customize encoding for VFS folder
>         VFS reads a filesystem using UTF-8 encoding and sometimes read
>         things wrong.
>         You may no have this experience but I face it lots of time
>         (since I'm a Chinese user)

This would be a band-aid. 

A programmer should not force users to set gibberish properties (I'm a
programmer and _even I_ hate those select charset encoding dialogs -
can't the computer figure it out on it's own? After all, I typed the
text just fine, so how is it my business to tell the computer _how to
unbreak what he himself broke_?)

(also type "iconv -l" to see why putting this in a combo box is a really
really bad idea: about 960 !! items)


Better course of action, ordered most desireable/clean first:
1) fix the VFS protocol / underlying protocol to actually read the
encoding from where it has been stored - the computer DID store the
encoding somewhere so he can read what he wrote later, riight? That
means you, FTP (and UNIX filesystems, for that matter - though the
latter is uniformly moving to UTF-8 - good) ;)

2) If 1) is not doable, put a dummy file on the server volume that
contains the encoding and make gnome-vfs read and honor that. It is
better when the *admin* can set the encoding than when the user has to -
the user usually gives a damn if the computer stores the text in celtic
runes internally, really

3) If all that doesn't work, fall back to a default and force everyone
to either use that default or do 1) or 2) instead. Do _not_ put encoding
into user-visible GUI.

For an admin, maybe there should be a way to override the detected
volume via a unbreak-me-list in gconf or /etc or the homedir or
something.... as a band-aid. But it is not there to stay first-class.

>         I have a workstation with fileilla server on Windwos XP. The
>         filesystem is in Big5
>         but seems VFS does notice that. It would be best to let user
>         to configure the
>         charset of a VFS folder instead of just use UTF-8.

It would be best if the darn protocol figured out the charset on it's
own and stopped bothering the user with gibberish ;)

>         
>      1. allow user to modified a previously set VSF folder
>         for many times, I set some of my FTP wrong on VFS. Currently,
>         I cannot reconfigure
>         an existing VFS folder and I have to do things all over again.
>         It would be better if
>         I can just right click the folder, press "setting" and
>         reconfigure VFS folders.

So what you actually want is a "test this connection" button so that you
can see if the information is correct without closing the dialog?

>         
>      1. agreement between menu icon reaction and desktop icon reaction
>         it is a little bit confuseing with the desktop icons and menu
>         icons. If you right click
>         the icon menu, the folder will show up. However, if you right
>         click the desktop icon, 
>         it gives you a menu for properties and unmount. It would be
>         best if I can get the 
>         menu for properties and unmount when I right click either one
>         icon.

What do you mean? What menu icon? Where?

>         
>      1. let user to select if they want "Desktop Icon" or not
>         If the point (3) is implemented, then the desktop icon would
>         not necessary. It would
>         be best to let user to choose if they want the "Desktop Icon"
>         or not. Proberly its

Yeah, admin setting, desireable. As a side note, having ~ 100 volume
desktop icons show up on the desktop of a storage area network is weird,
believe me ;)

>         the best to provide same options as the application menu to
>         the place menu icons.
>         That means if you right click the icon, you can choose to "add
>         this icon to panel" or
>         "add this icon to desktop"
>         
What menu is that?

>         If so, right-clicking the icon on location menu would give a
>         menu with these options:
>              1. Add this item to panel
>              2. Add this item to desktop
>              3. Unmount thie filesystem
>                 
What application? 

> These are just my little wishes to VFS and I think most people would
> be happy to see these.

Well, first and foremost I'd like the underlying problems to be fixed.
If that is not possible, I'd like workarounds for admin settings on the
_server_ side be implemented and if that fails too, I'd like it to break
really badly so the server author gets a lot of complaints and fixes the
darn program :)

> Thanks your reading.
> 
> Koala Yeung

cheers,
   Danny