Re: Regarding Nautilus scripts

[Sriram Ramkrishna <sri aracnet com>]

Okay, I think I understand the situation.   What she's looking for is:

a) a methodology to be able to add extensions (using bonobo) to context
   menu.  How and where it's put in the menus is a matter of user testing
   and conforming to HIG.


b) the method in which it's being installed needs to be user friendly.
   That means:

   a) bonobo needs to look in a particular place.  bonobo would either
   have to have a default place to look when it looks at user component
   (like how apache does it) or you could do something hideous like
   sticking it in gconf. ;)

   The server file does some other things right other than tell where
   the component is located?  Looking at the file it looks like it creates
   a description on how the component will be used. (ie mime type etc)

   I'm not sure if thats easily translatable to being able to just drop
   it into some directory.  It looks like the component has to embed that
   information into itself.

  
Just some thoughts on the subject.

sri


On Tue, Jun 10, 2003 at 03:02:31PM -0700, Mason Kidd wrote:
> That's why things like this should be distributed as packages or source
> tarballs.  The locations of things get determined by wonderful things
> like configure scripts and 
> pkg-config.
> 
> Mason Kidd, CCNA
> IT Customer Support Engineer II
> BEA Systems, Inc.
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bob Smith [mailto:bob thestuff net bea com] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 12:03 PM
> > To: Mason Kidd
> > Cc: Eugenia Loli-Queru; nautilus-list gnome org; 
> > desktop-devel-list gnome org
> > Subject: RE: Regarding Nautilus scripts
> > 
> > 
> > Doesnt a .server file need to specify the location? If so, 
> > then its not a
> > drop. Its a, put the file in the directory, put the so in a directory,
> > edit the .server to reflect the location of the .so. Its the last part
> > that breaks the ease of use.
> > 
> > ---  Bob Smith <bob thestuff net>  ---
> > ++++++++++[>+++++++>++++++++++>+++>+<<<<-]>++.>+.+++++++
> > ..+++.>++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.------.--------.>+.>.
> > 
> > On Mon, 9 Jun 2003, Mason Kidd wrote:
> > 
> > > But I think that this functionality pretty much already exists.  You
> > > drop the .server file in a special directory (/lib/bonobo/servers
> > > usually), and Bonobo registers the component. It doesn't 
> > matter where
> > > you put the .so file, because the .server file tells Bonobo 
> > where the
> > > .so file is.  So how is this more difficult than MacOS or BeOS?
> > >
> > > It seems to me that your only real complaint is the 
> > cluttering up of the
> > > top level Nautilus menu.  This could be easily alleviated 
> > by creating a
> > > submenu (Extensions or whatever), and have components' 
> > menus be placed
> > > in there (like your mock-up).
> > >
> > > As an aside, in about an hours worth of work, I created a Bonobo
> > > component to do the Open Terminal Here... functionality.  
> > I've gotten
> > > all the code written, just finishing up the compiling and 
> > installing.
> > > And I've never done any programming "of Nautilus internals" 
> > or anything
> > > like that.  So it's actually very easy to create "Nautilus addons".
> > > Anyone that knows C and XML can do it just by looking at 
> > some example
> > > code (I looked at the file-roller component source).
> > >
> > > Mason Kidd, CCNA
> > > IT Customer Support Engineer II
> > > BEA Systems, Inc.
> > > Kirkland, WA
> > > 425-896-4194
> > > Seattle, WA
> > > 206-926-2957
> > > Cell 206-295-7687
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Eugenia Loli-Queru [mailto:eloli hotmail com]
> > > > Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 5:18 PM
> > > > To: nautilus-list gnome org; desktop-devel-list gnome org
> > > > Subject: Re: Regarding Nautilus scripts
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > On a related note about .server files, and I think this is
> > > > sort of where
> > > > > Eugenia is trying to go is, while the .server file 
> > needs to be in a
> > > > > spacific directory, a .so plugin does not need to be in 
> > a spacific
> > > > > location. So there is two parts to a plugin. A .server file
> > > > and a .so
> > > > > file. One of the things that was very nice about MacOS < X
> > > > (and maybe X, I
> > > > > havent used X) was that you could put an extention in 
> > (one file) a
> > > > > special directory and it was registered. And when you 
> > were done with
> > > > > it, you just removed it from the directory. Maybe an
> > > > extention library
> > > > > could be added to bonobo(-activation) so that a .server
> > > > file could be
> > > > > described in a .so file (Maybe as a function??) and have a
> > > > program that
> > > > > pulls out the .server and registers it with
> > > > bonobo-activation. (hmm...
> > > > > this sounds familior. Doesnt activex do something like
> > > > this...). Then
> > > > > have nautilus have a special directory for plugins such 
> > that, if you
> > > > > place a .so file in that directory, it automatically
> > > > registeres the plugin
> > > > > and when you remove it, it unregisteres it. This would add
> > > > functionality
> > > > > similar to what MacOS has. Also, since its not nautilus 
> > spacific, it
> > > > > would also be an easy way to install plugins for other
> > > > bonobo-activation
> > > > > programs. (Maybe gedit?)
> > > >
> > > > That's exactly what I was talking about, regarding the
> > > > location. MacOS is
> > > > not the only OS that does that, BeOS does that too with
> > > > Tracker's addon. You
> > > > pop their .so files to the correct location as defined by
> > > > pkgconfig (if you
> > > > want to install them manually that is) and voila, the addon
> > > > is there! No
> > > > .server files or .so files all over the place. Just a 
> > simple .so or
> > > > executable, these applets are small apps anyway and when they
> > > > are not, let
> > > > the .so file to call the big app (e.g file roller). On BeOS,
> > > > you don't even
> > > > have to restart the file manager for Tracker to find the
> > > > newly placed addon,
> > > > the live queries system will tell Tracker that a new 
> > addon was placed,
> > > > automatically.
> > > >
> > > > Underlying OS + integration is your friend.
> > > >
> > > > Eugenia
> > > > --
> > > > nautilus-list mailing list
> > > > nautilus-list gnome org
> > > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/nautilus-list
> > > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > desktop-devel-list mailing list
> > > desktop-devel-list gnome org
> > > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
> > >
> > 
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