Re: More on Graphical Pipes

[Olaf Grüttner <O Gruettner tu-bs de>]

> Olaf
> I just read your post to gnome-user and I agree about the importance of
> graphical pipes.  I was tooling around with this idea using the translater
> feature embedded in the BeOS, but alas, I'm not a programmer.  I have done
> some pretty cool UI work though.

I am no programmer either, but for this idea, I am willing to learn how
to program.

> Are you a programmer?  Here's an idea maybe we could try combining our
> ideas and releasing a GPL design spec for a system utility like this.  I
> think it has the potential to be a great user application and a wonderful
> teaching aid.

> I have some general ideas that I could mock up if you're interested.  Hope
> to hear back from you.

wonderful, I would love to mix my ideas with yours and brew something
up. In the following lines, I try to be more specific on what I thought
of originally. And like you allready said, the basic idea is to great to
be dropped. Send me your comments / proposals/ ideas/ whatever and we'll
see what happens.

==================

I was thinking about other ways on how to make the pipe / script -
applet idea more clear.

Experienced users could write scripts, write a small explanation of what
happens in the script/ pipe and then post it on web sites, ready for
download.

The inexperienced user would download the script and copy it to say a
certain directory. That's all there is to the installation and he is all
set for work.

The program starts working as soon as a file from gmc is dropped upon
the application icon which is sitting on the desktop.

It will scan the scripting directory, have a look at the dropped file
(name, or extension) and take the appropriate script to process the
file. The resulting file will be put onto the desktop, ready to be
dragged into another place, or even to be dropped once again onto the
pipe application.

If there is only one script available for say .txt files, you won't be
prompted, but simply the result would apear on the desktop. Only if
there are more scripts available you would be prompted for the right
script to use.

Script / Pipe suggestions:

* 2x .txt - files              => diff - file
* 3x .txt - files              => 2 diff - files
* .html - file                 => .txt - file, stripped of all html tags
* .gif - file                  => .png - file
* .pcx - file                  => .tif - file ? ...
* .end - file                  => a script for shutting down the
computer
* .connect - file              => lauch of a pppup or ppp-on script
* .doc - file                  => .xml - file for gwp or abiword
* .xls - file                  => .xml - file for gnumeric
* .png - file                  => .gif - file
* .rpm - file(s)               => install with rpm -Uv
* .rpm - file(s)               => install with rpm -i
* .english - file              => .german - file (replacing english
words for german words with a lengthy sed file (for a basic
pre-translation))
* .txt - file                  => .txt - file, but checked for
misspelled words, by ispell

The work would be done by scripts, while the application just provides
an icon (maybe animated?), a possibility for prompting (multiple
scripts) and means to copy the resulting file to the desktop. Maybe an
interface for some configuration. But basically that's it.

If a user wants to say strip html - files, all he had to do would be to
go to a website, copy the script (html2txt) and everything is ready to
use.

The power of the command line would come to the casual user as close as
it possibly can ... and would remain so easily usable.

========================

In the next few days I want to take a closer look at the print applet.
It prints files, which are dragged from gmc onto itself. Maybe it is a
good beginning.

Until then.

Olaf