Re: RFC: Common desktop-wide paths

[Tristan Buckmaster <tristan buckmaster gmail com>]

I do not see what is wrong with the current download system where the web
browser points you to the directory you last stored a file of the same MIME
type.  I think it is wrong to associate MIME types with folders and do not
believe this was the intent of these default folders.  The problem is because
the MIME type does not give you enough information to classify.  1 simple
example is an audio file maybe music, a speech or maybe just some sound
effect.  The use of the default folders, were to create a place for users to put
someone and in doing so classify it as something.  For example is if you put
an audio file in the music directory you classify it as music and all 
applications that deal with music will know about it.  These default folders are
really just a primitive way of attaching a forn if meta data to something.  Once
we have developed better ways of handling attaching proper meta data and 
using that meta data we can throw all this away.

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 13:34:20 +0100, Jamie McCracken
<jamiemcc blueyonder co uk> wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-10-02 at 12:47 +0100, Jamie McCracken wrote:
>
> >
> > I do like the idea of having a Downloads folder on the desktop but it
> > needs to be smart. I.E. if my web browser downloads a picture it should
> > put it in the pictures folder not the Downloads one. Likewise for videos
> > and music files - the Downloads folder should only contain downloaded
> > stuff that doesn't fit into one of the other folders (it should be mime
> > type dependant so other types could be handled with custom desktop
> > folders so I could say create a zip folder and have the web browser
> > automatically place all downloaded zips there).
> >
> > Of course this would require system integration with Firefox/Mozilla/
> > Ephinany so maybe we need a freedesktop standard to define it?
>
>
> Just to add to this, I would propose adding an extra column to the mime-
> type database to specify default folder location. That way browsers can
> read this to determine the download folder to use. It could also be used
> by other Gnome apps in the open file dialog by automatically starting
> the file chooser in the default location for the respective MiME type EG
> if I open Abiword, the file dialog would initialise in the default
> folder for that Mime type.
>
> Of course this way is fully configurable and extendable so should meet
> all requirements for everyone's needs.