Not OK computer:/// [was Re: Should Desktop = Home?]

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

I've been meaning to bring this up for a while but had not gotten around
to it yet and it is pretty safe bet no one actually reads what I write in
my journal and this is a good excuse to bring up a problem I have with
Gnome 2.8.

> > Yeah, I figured this was probably debated and decided years ago.
> > However, I couldn't turn anything up. Can anyone enlighten us as to the
> > official reasoning for the current setup?
>
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-May/msg00673.html

this message talks of the joys of having ~/Desktop
which i encourage you to read

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-May/msg00674.html
and a followup message reacts "Please God No" in response to
start-here:///
which was my reaction to seeing
computer:///

Why do people keep creating new protocols?

It breaks things.  file:/// is a perfectly good protocol, computer:/// is
compatible only with Nautilus (and disturbingly like the c:/ drive from
Microsoft, I'm not just being anti-Microsoft it really is a bad idea).

For all the same reasons that start-here:/// was a bad idea so is the
implementation of computer:///  (the concept of having a clean user
friendly "computer" equivalent to / is not a bad idea, just the
implementation).  I suppose users of spatial Nautilus will never see
computer:/// but that doesn't make it a good idea.   I believe there are
similar efforts to get rid of a protocol/URI specific to the control panel
but I dont know the details.

I figure it could have been implemented as ~/Computer/ and have the drives
and shortcuts mounted there which doesn't mess as much with the
traditional "everything is a file" and I think it is kind of appropriate
that your Computer would be inside your Home.

If someone has not already done so I'll try and make time to file a bug
report but I'd really hate to see this still in the next version of Gnome
and I think it is important enough to bring it up on the list to bring it
to try to discourage developers from creating arbitrary new protocols.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
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