Re: RFC: Common desktop-wide paths

[Tristan Buckmaster <tristan buckmaster gmail com>]

Ok it seems that there are alot of people for having default
directories, but everyone has their own take on how they should be
implemented.  It is obvious that as it is such a dividing issue, that
if it is to be implemented it should be highly configurable, but still
easy to use and maintain.

One very contentious issue is what the default directories should be. 
I believe instead of thinking of it as directories we should think of
it as meta labels (made that name up, it's probably a stupid name for
them...) that map to directories.  For example you could have the
following labels:

Default
Office Documents
Music
Downloads
Photos
Development
........
.......
blah

These meta labels can be attached to certain directories or not mapped
at all.  One directory may have several meta labels attached to it. 
The default meta label points to the directory seen as the root of all
the users documents (for example ~/Desktop or ~/Documents).

When a program like Rhythmbox opens that requires a directory to find
it's music, it will do the following things:

* Check if there is a directory that is attached to Music
* If there is not a directory attached to Music or the directory that
was attached to Music has since been renamed, moved or deleted, it
will open up a dialog box to select a directory for the Music meta
label.

You may also wish programs to have an advanced option to select a
custom directory not connected with a meta label.  Programs that do
not require a default directory, may use the appropriate meta label as
a guideline of where to first look for a document (in an open/save
dialog), if the label doesn't exist then it will use the default label
as it's guideline.

An important  implementation issue is how the user manages these meta
labels.  I suggest there first be a configurable wizard that appears
when you first open gnome.  It will first allow you to select the
directory the default meta label should attach itself to.  You can
then select which meta labels you would like to use (You may wish to
use no meta labels at all).  The default will be to create a directory
(in the appropriate language) for each meta label with the same
directory name as the label inside the default directory, but if the
user wishes he can use a different directory or use a directory one of
the other meta labels is using.  Now as I said this should be
configurable.  There should be the option to use a configuration file
so distributions can automatically create directories and meta labels
and not have the wizard run.  A distribution may think it's best to
let the directories and labels be created when the user first runs
programs that require default directories.

The user should also be able to edit the meta labels through a system
tool program (you probably want the wizard and system tool program to
be the same program).  The user could rename a default directory,
point a meta label to a different directory or detach meta labels all
together.  If the user points a meta label to a different directory
you may wish to ask the user if he wants the files in the old
directory moved to the new one and then the old directory deleted.

Anywayz thats my idea...

It would allow people to have whatever default directories they want
and wherever they want or have none at all.  It would allow
distributions to configure default directories however they like.

Tristan