Re: Theory question on desktop and gmc

[Tim Allen <timallen godzilla zeta org au>]

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Michael ROGERS wrote:

> >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!

Thanks.

> Middle click to "pick up" a selection,

OK, why? Why not just have it work on the active selection, like all other
selection-type things do? (X, gpm, etc..)

> do whatever you need to do
> with the left and right buttons to move to the drop site,

Or perhaps even perform operations on the selection...?

> and middle click
> again to "drop".

Or, "paste", as old timers will likely call it.

> 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?

Well, it should be. You know, I always despised Win95's ugly OLE IDs on
every doggone thing in the file system clogging up namespace and all, but
now I see that perhaps they're not such a bad idea. 

File types are replaced by "MIME types", which are stored in the metadata
(which reminds me - we need a raw-text metadata format, or some kind of
metadata compiler/decompiler - so we can hack these things in vi/emacs if
necessary) and define functions (CORBA calls? Commandlines?) upon various
actions. Yes, the registry is a mess, but I'm beginning to be more
attached to it..

> >I'm still stuck for something to bind to middle-drag, though..
> 
> Add to selection/reverse selection?

Well, in *my* ideal world, that would be done with nice control/alt/shift
combos. Except perhaps Alt - WindowMaker traps that a little too tightly.
(Oh for a meta key! <cue "Double Bucky">).

Here's my Beaut Idea for a middle-mouse drag action. It's kinda weird.. 
Now, we have "paste" bound to middle-click (release?). But if we *move*
the mouse before release (a middle-drag) we get a special context menu - a
"paste as..." list. So, you select a bunch of files, zip over to another
gmc, and middle drag, which pops up options like "copy", "move", "soft
link", "hard link" (Yes, I know these are copies of the right-click items,
but bear with me), maybe "paste filenames to file", or "run a command on
these filenames in this directory", that kind of thing. If the paste
target is something like gnumeric, we get "open file", "embed file",
"paste contents of file", and so forth. 

Again, this functionality is largely a duplicate of drag/drop, but (as was
mentioned) you can select a bunch of stuff, then open the destination and
paste it in.

> >> >> 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?  =)

Oh, all right. :) Still, it's kinda finnicky. 

I do like the idea someone noted KDE has - Alt-F2 brings up (I suppose) a
small mini-commander-like window that you can type into.

> >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".

Certainly. I hear all-too-little about this style guide. I know tha Mac
style guide is quite strict and all-encompassing, and I wish Win95 were
the same. And GNOME, too, although it's already not too bad.

Tim Allen