Re: metadata

[Christopher Curtis <ccurtis ee fit edu>]

On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Miguel de Icaza wrote:

>    We now have to come with a list of standard keys that we will use
> on the Metadata, here is a suggestion of the keys I want to use --at

The only thing I would like to add is enumeration, with ".1" or ".0" being
the default data object.  "Gnome.Icon", for instance, could support
multiple icons for different color depths, using "Gnome.Icon.32"(bpp),
etc.  Maybe the ".0" property being another property name (eg,
Gnome.Icon.0's data is "Gnome.Icon.$bpp"), though I question unnecessary
overhead.  Having a 1:1 correlation between a data key and its data seems
very limiting to me, which the enumerations I hope addresses.

>    "Gnome.Open"                Command used to open this file

Especially in cases like this.  I would want (for example):

Gnome.Open.0 -> Gnome.Open.3
Gnome.Open.1 -> "emacs $this"
Gnome.Open.2 -> "php -cgi < $this > $1"
Gnome.Open.3 -> "netscape $this"

The default method, ".0" says to use method 3, which tells netscape to
open with the name of the object as its argument.  Method one would do the
same for emacs.  Method 2 would preprocess the file using PHP and spit it
out to $1, would would be substituted for user input.  For those
unfamiliar, OS/2 does this.  In the arguments to a program, if you put the
string "[$]" IIRC, before running the program it prompts for a parameter,
which then gets substituted on the commandline.  $1...$9 seems to make
more sense to me in the *nix world.

>    "Gnome.Open.NeedTerminal"   Boolean: if set, the program needs a 
> 	                       terminal to run, false otherwise.

Hmm.  Don't like it.  Don't know that I could come up with anything
better, but this seems like it should belong in a set of flags.  Something
like: "xemacs $1" for X apps, or "!emacs $1" for console apps.

>    "Gnome.Drop"                A command to run when a list of files
> 			       is dropped in this file.

I talked about this briefly as well.  It would be good, imo, to do the
win95 thing here - have several methods (using .1, .2, etc) and the
default gets applied if you left d&d, or a menu opens up if you right d&d. 
I don't know if these bindings have been used. 

>    Other actions would be specified under the "Actions" toplevel, for
> example:

"Actions"?  I presume these are either global or type-based?  Sounds okay
(same arguments as above wrt numbering).  How will they be overridden?
Eg, will you be able to do a:

*: Action.Print: "lpr -P$PRINTER $this"
 as defaults, and
*.a: Action.Print: "nm $this | lpr -P$PRINTER"

If it's broken up on the granularity of an individual file, does it go
into the global frame or become a Gnome.Action.Print...?

> Object files could have:
>    "Action.View.Display object file symbols" "%view{ascii} objdump %f"

%view{ascii} ... what does that represent?

btw: %f <=> $this

Christopher