Re: [Utopia] gnome-vfs HAL patch, take 3

[David Zeuthen <david fubar dk>]

On Fri, Jul 09, 2004 at 03:21:20PM +0200, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> > > What about the attached (untested) gnome-vfs-export-hal-udi.patch? It
> > > exports the hal udi as a string, whenever its availible. This lets
> > > nautilus recover UDI information from computer:// since the Drive/Volume
> > > id is availible in the desktop files there. This would make it easy to
> > > do things like adding emblems in nautilus.
> > > 
> > 
> > This looks good, I'll try it out tonight.
> 
> The patch forgot to free hal_udi in GnomeVFSVolume when its destroyed.
> 

Oh, ok, I just glanced at it. I'll hope to use it this weekend to play
around with the Nautilus Extension stuff that Dave Camp talked about
at GUADEC; who knows, I might cook up a patch :-)

> > > I think its better to detect devices when plugged in, and perhaps launch
> > > the right app, or maybe just show the device as plugged in somewhere
> > > (notification area?). And then the application that handles cameras
> > > should of course use hal and automatically do the right thing wrt its
> > > user interface when the camera is plugged in. 
> > > 
> > 
> > That's right, we probably want to do that anyway, launching applications
> > etc. should be in gnome-volume-manager.
> > 
> > >From what I can see many people like to use "life style" devices for
> > data storage, and for cameras it is really a storage device, although
> > the "card reader" happens to be a camera possibly with a proprietary
> > protocol to access it through e.g. libgphoto2.
> > 
> > But I agree this clutters the computer:/// location, I mean continuing
> > my line of argument more or less any device with storage capabilities
> > will end up in computer:///. 
> 
> Yeah, even if its technically possible to store arbitrary data on the
> camera (and some geeks might want to do that) I think putting it in
> computer:// could confuse people as to what the device is and how to
> best use it.
> 

Right, good point, and such people probably already got a card reader.

> > Maybe computer:/// should exactly be the location to look for your
> > devices that has storage no matter what method we use to connect to
> > it? And the icon used should reflect what the device is.
> 
> I think it should be the location you go for all your devices who's
> primary and perhaps secondary use is storage of random files. And the
> icon should reflect the type of media/device.
> 

Sounds like a good measuring stick. So cameras is out, makes sense.

I think MP3 players is still in, as most of these devices are used for
random files - the market is literally filled with noname versions of
these in the $50-range; basically USB keys with a connector for
headphones. And people do use them at business meetings to exchange
files; seen that, done that - the same can hardly be said about
cameras :-).

Cheers,
David