Re: Theory question on desktop and gmc

[Tim Allen <timallen godzilla zeta org au>]

On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Michael ROGERS wrote:
> The desktop can't behave exactly like a directory - for one thing, mouse
> actions will be different since window managers are going to want to steal
> some of the mouse clicks for themselves.

On the other hand, a special case like that ("Well, for normal directories
and gmc, click with the right mouse-button, but on the desktop you put the
mouse over the icon and control-alt-meta-click with the F17 key..." :)
just seems awkward.

> However, I don't think the desktop
> *should* act like a directory. The Windows idea of integrating the desktop 
> with the file manager with the web browser is crap, and Gnome shouldn't 
> imitate it.

Hmm.. I can't see a problem with the desktop-directory link. It's a
graphical representation of a bunch of files.. in both cases.
File manager/web browser, yes. The main problem is having too much damned
cruft on every simple file-manager window. As such, it irks me that I
can't turn off the text labels in gmc, or even hide toolbars..

I'm thinking.. yes, all these links can be henious, but the ability to
type some random address into mini-commander and have Netscape open would
be very useful, if only netscape loaded in less than three minutes.

(random thought: link mini-commander and gdict (see freshmeat) so that I
can type dict:<word> and get a definition or a list of alternate
spellings..)

> Desktop shortcuts to directories and devices are useful.  (Panel
> launchers provide the same functionality as Windows application
> shortcuts so desktop shortcuts to applications aren't needed)

Well, you can put directories on the panel, so desktop shortcuts to
directories and devices aren't needed. :)

> A desktop cluttered with random files is not useful

So why does every app start with cwd=~/.gnome-desktop, and try to save all
its data files there? (including netscape downloads and the like...)

> why not just open a file manager window in your home directory and dump
> them there instead. 

Because gmc takes too long to open - and besides, that's what I did do
before gnome started all programs in the desktop directory..

Tim Allen