Re: Gnome-utils branched to gnome-2-14

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

On Wed, 2006-02-08 at 17:06 +0000, Alan Horkan wrote:
> On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Wouter Bolsterlee wrote:
> 
> > Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 20:56:56 +0100
> > From: Wouter Bolsterlee <uws+gnome xs4all nl>
> > To: desktop-devel-list gnome org
> > Subject: Re: Gnome-utils branched to gnome-2-14
> >
> > P�on, Feb 06, 2006 at 11:41:16AM -0600, Shaun McCance skrev:
> > > On Mon, 2006-02-06 at 10:26 +0100, Emmanuele Bassi wrote:
> > > > Screenshot
> > > > 	* heavy bugzilla love
> > > > 	* remove the file name entry and use a filechooser button
> > >
> > > I don't like this idea.  I mean, arguably, we have a file chooser
> > > button for exactly this sort of thing.  But the fact that we have
> > > a widget doesn't mean it's the best tool.
> 
> I remain baffled how the file chooser button was designed.
> 
> Everywhere we have text entries followed by a Browse button but the File
> Chooser button looks nothing like this.
> 
> Instead of a widget to encapsulate this established idea there is a
> "button" which looks confusingly like a drop down menu.

There are multiple use cases for GtkFileChooser button, depending on
whether you want to pick an existing file, pick the name of an 
existing folder, select the name of a *new* file, etc.

Considering only the "new file" case, my recollection is:

 - Jim originally had the SAVE mode for GtkFileChooser button
   looking like a button.
 - Seth thought the widget should appear as a combination of 
   an entry and a button to select the folder
 - I pointed out that that would heavily constrain the layout
   and make it hard to pack the widgets properly, and that
   for that operation, the programmer could combine an entry and
   a SELECT_FOLDER mode GtkFileChooserButton.
 - Seth and Jim agreed with this, and the decision was made
   to make GtkFileChooser button *not support*
   the SAVE and CREATE_FOLDER actions.
   The way you use a GtkFileChooser button for those actions,
   is to combine a SELECT_FOLDER ACTION button with a 
   separate entry.

(Matthias and Jonathan also contributed to the discussion,
but I forget how exactly...)

This is exactly the usage in the screenshot dialog as it exists
in GNOME-2.8; I don't have a newer version at hand to compare with.

The screenshot dialog was one of the primary use cases in mind
during this process, and I think it generally works out pretty
well.

There might be some refinement that could be done to the
controls. Things that have been discussed:

 - Make the "completing entry" from GtkFileChooser available
   as a widget of some type.
 - Make the "Select Folder" mode of GtkFileChooserButton
   a dropdown with an Other... entry that brought up a separate 
   dialog.

Regards,
						Owen