[Deja-dup-hackers] Use of GtkIconView

[Urban Škudnik <urban skudnik gmail com>]

Michael suggested that I look into Gtk.IconView so here is a bit of  
research into it.

> I assume it would be vastly more work, but an icon/grid view like
> nautilus's would be nifty too.  Could you look at that, and how much
> of that work GtkIconView would take care of for us?  If it's a giant
> task, we could do that in a later cycle if we wanted.
>
> One nice thing about an icon view would be nice big file icons based
> on filename (gio has a function for this).  In fact, even if we don't
> use an icon view, we should probably show tiny file icons in the list
> view.  Anyway, it's a thought.

Yes, I agree that using icons is a must and will implement that in any  
case.

As for Gtk.IconView - technically it doesn't seem much more  
complicated (at least by some samples that I saw - I haven't actually  
programmed anything with it). It is based on the same MVC principal  
that TreeView is based upon so it probably also wouldn't be much more  
work.

However, things get a lot more complicated if we want to give user  
some kind of time perspective at backup. For this I came up with three  
suggestions (ordered by assumed increasing difficulty).

Mockups for 2) and 3): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1493539/iconviewsuggs.png

1) We simply add time difference at the end of file name (e.g.  
filename.txt (Yesterday), filename2.pdf (Two months ago)). Seems quite  
clumsy and users probably wouldn't notice time diff very quickly.

2) We use standard IconView but show time span with a (transparent)  
overlay at bottom/middle of the screen that shows time range of files  
that we have currently shown in window. I am not sure if there is  
already Gtk component for this - if it is, it's relatively simple,  
otherwise I would probably need to make custom widget (this one seems  
easier to make in comparison to 3.).

3) We use custom scroll component (kind-of based on time machine - http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/HT1427/TM%20Restore.png) 
 that shows time points on regular intervals. When user scrolls we  
show more time points for more detailed overview (if needed). We would  
also encapsulate time points between which we are currently displaying  
deleted files with gray area.

The last suggestion seems to be quite time consuming since I would  
need to develop quite complex custom widget.

Probably the optimal solution (if we use IconView) would, at least for  
now, be 2.

As always, thoughts and suggestions warmly welcomed ;)

Regards,
Urban

P.S. I forgot to draw "Restore" button - that would probably be put at  
the bottom of the window (if I wouldn't use existing cancel/forward  
buttons that Assistant has)