Re: Proposal for File-Selection Dialog

["Jay Nordwick" <nordwick scam XCF Berkeley EDU>]

Will all Gnome compliant window manager be required to recognize the idea 
of a desktop?

Where it shows the name of the current directory, it would be nice to
be able to click on directory name to go there (e.g., if the shown
directory name is /home/me/work/glib, I would like to be able to
click on "me" and go to /home/me, or click on "work" and go to /home/me/work).
To this extent, the "cd .." button is obsoleted.

I think that item 3 is, at best, simply a waste of screen space, at worst
it is confusing:  Why are these things not in the drop down menu, and 
context sensitive operations (like viewing a file or something) should be
placed under the RMB when over that file type.  And I really don't care
about concerns for MACs only having one button.

I really don't like the desktop icon, I would prefer a cool looking tilde.
After all if you are refering to /home/<user> as the desktop, then why
not use the tilde -- its been that way for years.

I really do not like the Windows way of putting my computer under the
desktop.  The computer should the top of the hierarchy, with desktop
(or $HOME) in the correct location under the proper storage device.

If you are going to have a filetype selector combo-box, then why
not make it an editable combo box?  I think that there is a difference
between the file selection field and the filter field.  The filter field
will display only certain files in the view, however it would be nice
if you could type *.tex in the file selection box and have it select
all files ending in '.txt' -- like shell globbing (I personally think
that full sh-style globbing should be supported).

Also, keeping the current tab-completion is an absolute necessity.

One thing that has always bothered me is that under Windows, it is
not possible to easily select a file on the desktop without having to click
on the desktop button.  I really don't like the mouse.  So having $HOME as
your desktop, it should then be possible to enter the tilde on the file
selection text field.  This would also give further reason to replace that
(lame) desktop icon in favor of a cool looking tilde (or if this is not
going to happen, then at least support a character similar to tilde that
represents a user's desktop.  As in current UNIX style, you type ~john to
go to John's home directory, or ~ to go to yours, it would be beneficial
to say have # mean that users desktop, so #/foo.tex would be the file
called foo.tex on my desktop, and #john/bar.tex would be the file named
bar.tex on John's desktop).

Of course, an option to display dot-files.

Not to sound hash, I really like some thiNgs. I like the whitespace idea
in the margin (although a little smaller than pictured, but I suppose that
would be configurable by sliding the beveled edge left).  I really like
the minimal look:  hiding as much as possible, while not sacrificing
ease of use.

This was origianll only supposed to be a couple lines, but oh well.  Everybody
has preferences.

-jay

>WTF!  You used Win32 to do a GTK+ file-selection dialog prototype.  For
>shame!:-)
>
>Ten lashes with a wet noodle for you!
> 
>shane
>
>On Sat, 19 Dec 1998, Justin Ross wrote:
>
>> I've been cooking up ideas for the file-selection dialog.  Actually, my
>> scheme has come to include GMC now too.  Part of it is up, so please
>> have a look at
>>
>>     http://www.olywa.net/opiskin/gnomeui/fileselection.html
>>
>> I'll continue to revise it based on people's responses.  Thanks.
>>
>> Justin
>>