Re: [Fwd: GMC: Recreating the best console file manager for X]

[Paul Johnson <pauljohn ukans edu>]

On Sat, 15 Aug 1998, Greg S. Hayes wrote:
I tried to grab text of Greg's message, but for some reason it didn't
come with the reply to.  Anyway, I want to echo his comments on gmc.
It ought to be the best gnome app and unless it is as good as, say,
Win95 Explorer, Gnome will be in trouble from the outset.  As a user,
I have these thoughts about it.

1. Configuration. Please look at the little program called "sfm". 
It is really a pleasure to use and configure.
http://www.chez.com/prigaux/sfm.html
 If you try to execute a file and it doesn't know its type, then it asks you how
to execute it, and then it remembers. You can easily change, of course.  I
disagree with Greg that the kfm approach is the best, I guess.  SFM does
not have bells and whistles, such as the ability to look into tarballs and rpms,
but the elementary functionality seem to me, well, just about perfect.  One
thing I like best about it is that it makes use of all kinds of shift
and control key modifiers to significanly expand user control over how
files are executed.

SFM can also rename files "in place". Just click on the file, hit F2,
and you can edit the name. No rename menu panels or other abuse.

2. The file display ought to indicate space left on disk and also total space
used by the current directory.  Without that, users can overflow filessystems
and not find out until it is too late. 

3. The gmc icon used when dragging and dropping files is too large. It needs
a sharp point so we can drop files on directory names without expanding them.
  I kept getting files randomly scattered around
with the gmc from the CVS tree, then I realized it no longer defaults
to ask for confirmations...
 

Paul E. Johnson                      pauljohn@ukans.edu
Dept. of Political Science           http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                 Office: (913) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045               FAX: (913) 864-5700