Re: File dialogs: Miscellaneous

["Michael T. Babcock" <mbabcock fibrespeed net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christian Rose" <menthos@menthos.com>


> Okay, some users write shell/perl scripts for mass renaming but
> remember, we're talking about people that want to use a GUI, and/or
> people that aren't programmers, here.

I'd love to offer that stuff intelligently to users for once.  When's the
last time your computer did something intelligent for you?  How about saying
'this folder has a lot of files in it, would you like to catalogue them?
(now, remind me later by email, leave me alone)' then 'are they best
described by different subjects, or time periods or other?' ... 'How would
you best describe the category to use for some of these files?' ... etc.

So people hate things like the little paperclip in office.  Why not have an
intelligent and useful computer for once?

> Usually, the pictures are a huge bunch of files in one directory, yes,
> and they _don't_ have desciptive names if they're automatically
> generated, or from a digital camera or so.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if your filesystem allowed you to easily add
arbitrary metadata to a file like 'photographer, location, date shot, slide
#, film case id' to your photos and then auto-link them to folders by those
names?

photos/* (thousands of pictures numbered)

photos/By_Photographer/Michael/* (most of them, soft-links to the photos
directory)
photos/By_Location/France/* (a bunch of files, soft-links to the photos
directory)

... etc.  Using filesystems like ReiserFS, this becomes even more efficient
and great for locating files later.  If you could do this _in-place_,
creating pseudo-meta-data (linking to intelligently named directories), your
file system would grow on you more.

> > This replies to your strange reply to my #1.  My #1 was one case ...
this is
> > the other.  They are both interactive ...
>
> No, the Nautilus alternative doesn't require interaction to show
> previews, as the icon view is the default and the preview function comes
> hand in hand with the icon view.

It might not all the time; but the first time I load a directory full of
mostly images (it should detect that), I want it to say 'this folder is
mostly of images, would you like them shown as slides to scroll through?'
and ditto for mp3 folders or an audio CD itself (show me the tracks, with
their names from CDDB), etc.  I want a computer that _does something_ with
all that CPU ;-).

> > > Do the want to mimic Nautilus file view? I don't mean exactly letting
> > > the file dialog being a complete Nautilus clone functionality-wise
> > > (horror) but merely borrow it's file view and "Zoom" paradigm in the
> > > file dialog.
> >
> > No, we want to _use_ it as a bonobo component.  :-)
>
> I perfectly agree. Friends?
> I noticed that Jörg's example didn't include a Nautilus bonobo component
> for the file view though.... :-(
>
> And, yes, I forgot about the in-place rename thingie that comes
> hand-in-hand with Nautilus... But a rename button might still be needed,
> that toggles the selected file in in-place rename mode or off (the
> normal selected state).

I haven't looked at Eazel's code in a while.  I'm really hoping they're
separating the chrome of the file manager from the displaying of files
enough that the latter can become a re-usable component (and no, not the
open-source "lets just use their code!" way either!).