Re: gnome configuration

[Gleef <dzol virtual-yellow com>]

On 23 Mar 1999, Sam Steingold wrote:
> gnome-core-1.0.3-9
> gnome-games-1.0.2-3
> gnome-libs-1.0.3-5
> gnome-libs-devel-1.0.3-5
> gnome-linuxconf-0.19-1
> gnome-objc-1.0.1-2
> gnome-pim-1.0.3-2
> gnome-utils-1.0.1-4
> 
> I am an "old time unixoid" (I have a lengthy compiled .emacs; I never
> use Customize &c), so I am used to editing my config by hand and saving
> it so that I don't have to redo the same thing over and over again.
> 
> I like gnome gnome and I hope to use it for the years to come.
> I wish it were more friendly to me though. :-)

GNOME is very manual editing friendly.  I do it alot!


> 1. menu-based configuration is OKay, but apparently it is not "well
>    saved".  when my window manager crashes, the gnome pager exits.  When
>    I restart WM, I have to reconfigure the pager.  what **FILE** do
>    these settings go to anyway?

You might be looking at a bug here.  But regardless, GNOME saves its
configuration information in manually editable text files in "~/.gnome".
Panel configuration, and configuration for applets (like GNOME Pager) are
in ~/.gnome/panel.d.  Emacs away to your hearts content :-).

 
> 2. a look at my home directory almost gave me a heart attack! :-)
>    I have there:
>         - an *EMPTY* directory "~/.gnome_private",

I've never been able to figure out what this is for.


>         - ~/.gnome-desktop, which is (apparently) created by gmc
>    and which, again, I do not want (no, I do **NOT** want these stupid
>    icons on my desktop!)

Easy fix for this.  Clear out everything in ~/.gnome-desktop, and than
make it read-only.  Gmc will never bother you with desktop icons again
:-).


>         - ~/.gnome-help-browser - why isn't it ~/.gnome/help-broser?

Dunno.


>         - ~/gnome, with files, inter alia:
I assume you mean ~/.gnome

>      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 sds           458 Mar 21 14:37 gnome-terminal-9vOfKN
>      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 sds           458 Mar 21 14:37 gnome-terminal-T2jwvN
>      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 sds           460 Mar 21 14:37 gnome-terminal-sBkyQL
>      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 sds           547 Feb 27 17:52 gtop-3LugGi
>      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 sds           547 Mar 21 14:37 gtop-tAYCUO
>      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 sds           546 Feb 18 15:48 gtop-teytqG
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           408 Jan 28 09:47 .xsm2HI6or
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           406 Feb  3 11:58 .xsm6YDy6c
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           406 Mar 21 15:20 .xsm8rIU2q
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           408 Jan 28 15:39 .xsmQFRtrC
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           410 Jan 23 02:00 .xsmYbzmzy
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           406 Feb 18 13:53 .xsmc9QaIe
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           408 Jan 21 13:44 .xsmcFbbd0
>      1 -rw-------   1 sds           406 Feb  3 17:24 .xsmcMpHMy
>         who is supposed to remove this junk?

These look like gnome-session remnants.  In theory, gnome-session should
be removing them automatically as the files become obsolete.


> 3. gmc would have been quite useful if it didn't crash so often and if I
>    could make it lauch gnuclient instead of emacs.  Also, I see no
>    reason to require me to confirm exit *twice*.

As far as I can tell from the docs, you can change the editor invoked
simply by changing your EDITOR environment variable.

I think the reason for making exiting gmc require so many steps is that
newbies really shouldn't be exiting it (they should use File->Close
instead).  By putting the dialog boxes there, we can discourage
the newbies from exiting gmc accidentaly, while permitting advanced users
from editing with only a little work.

As I understand it, after we go back to working on development versions,
gmc will split the file manager and desktop icon manager into two separate
programs, so these gmc quirks could be removed.  Until then, we make the
best of what we've got.

-Gleef