Re: spacial

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Thu, 2004-04-29 at 06:33, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 30, 2004 at 03:22:32PM -0400, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> 
> > This was also a conscious decision. If we allowed apps to install global
> > templates the templates directory would be full of crap like "create
> > <app> file" for all a) apps the user doesn't run and b) templates the
> > user doesn't use. 
> 
> Therefore this idea:
> > > If not directly filling template folders there could be a
> > > 'template library' for just copying over the desired ones. 
> 
> 
> > It's not meant to
> > be a way to basically launch apps (which it would otherwise quickly turn
> > into), that problem needs to be solved in a better way.
> 
> And I thought Gnome is moving towards being document centric with 
> spatial Nautilus and stuff. Directly launching an app to generate 
> a new file isn't the thing to do in this context. So there must be 
> a way to generate even generic files triggered outside apps.
> I can hardly see how there could be meaningful (technical) seperation 
> between templates for simple new empty files or customized document 
> templates.

If we use the template menu for basically launching any installed app we
get a way to large menu, basically the applications menu from the panel.
Experience has shown us that this type of menu just doesn't work well.
And it probably would work even worse as a submenu of a context menu.
So, we try to make the templates menu usable for day-to-day fast work by
keeping it small and focused on what you actually use. That doesn't mean
I'm against a better way to launch apps, I just don't think the
templates menu is the place.
 
> > Even real document templates, that are generic rather than specific to
> > your company/organization/whatever are bad. Dumping, say, all the MS
> > Office templates into a global templates directory would instantly make
> > the menu huge, impossible to find things in and full of stuff you never
> > user. Thats not useful.
> 
> Ok, I see apps with their own template library are a problem.
> For stuff like OOo Impress it would be better to just trigger File->New.
> 
> How about having a folder/menu with 'shortcuts' to the File->New 
> functionality of each app that is the prefered for a file type?

Prefered editory you mean? (i.e. not the normal mime prefered app, since
that is likely to not edit files) Who chooses this app? Where is the UI
to edit it? Who chooses what file type are in it? How do third party
apps add themselves to it? How do you merge system templates with user
ones? How do you "delete" system templates that you don't want?

Basically, its the start menu all over again, vfolders and all.