Re: Theory question on desktop and gmc

[Michael ROGERS <M Rogers cs ucl ac uk>]

>Hey, here's an idea - Traditionally in X, middle-click is paste, right? So
>we can use middle-click for maybe pasting files.. Imagine - Select a bunch
>of files in gmc on one desktop, zip to another desktop with another gmc,
>and hit the middle button - boom, files appear. Possibly also, select a
>bunch of files, go to a window (say, gnumeric or whatever the GNOME
>wordproc is) and hit the middle-button - files are inserted/filenames
>inserted/OLE-style links, whatever.
>
>Yeah, I guess it's just dragging with a different face.. I'm guessing that
>you can't drag between desktops so this would come in handy (well, maybe
>you can in E, but not in window maker). And it *is* consistent with X11
>generally.

Great idea! Middle click to "pick up" a selection, do whatever you need to do
with the left and right buttons to move to the drop site, and middle click
again to "drop".

By the way, is it possible to drag and drop files into archives? Perhaps we 
could have a MIME key which defines the action to be taken when a file is 
dropped onto another file?

>I'm still stuck for something to bind to middle-drag, though..

Add to selection/reverse selection?

>> >Oh, and something I just thought of. I can make a Launcher on the
>> >desktop, then drag it (left-drag) to the panel. Then I can't drag it back
>> >*off* the panel - I have to remove it and create it again..
>> 
>> If the mouse button release (not the mouse button press) triggered the
>> launcher, 
>
>Which it does. 

Um, great. Maybe I should write my email at home so I can test these
things before I suggest them.  =)

>> >> I like the suggestion of just typing on the desktop, instead of using
>> >> mini-commander or a terminal.
>> >
>> >Interesting thought - except that I have Window Maker set on sloppy focus,
>> >so that I can just shunt the pointer off the window I'm interested in onto
>> >the desktop without losing correct focus. The side effect is that the
>> >desktop never gets the focus.
>> 
>> Couldn't you push the cursor onto the window frame?
>
>*cough* Have you seen Window Maker screenshots? The only window manager
>with less decoration is 9wm (or E on a bad day, I guess ;)

OK, the title bar. Window Maker has those, right?  =)

>Say - I wish gnobots did that. Actually, I wish more things did that. 

Maybe it should be in the style guide - "make the mouse pointer disappear
when it's not being used".


Michael Rogers