Proposal: Extended file selection, was: Re: [gtk-list] Re: newbie , signal question

[Nils Philippsen <nils rhlx01 rz fht-esslingen de>]

Hi,

On Fri, 19 Jun 1998, Stefan Jeske wrote:

> On 19-Jun-98 Nils Philippsen wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Currently I try to make an extended file selection widget as a derivate of
> > gtkfilesel (for the curious: a widget to select multiple files - instead of
> > only one - from various directories)
> 
> Derivation sounds to me like overkill... I think this could be made an option
> of GtkFileSelection (and thus handled differently in the button_press).

It's not just button presses, the thing should also be able to gather files
from different directories, i.e. it needs extension in the user interface.
Speaking of an extension of the file selection, we should be able to create

(A) the ordinary known file selection, with which you can select one file at a
    time
(B) an extended selection which lets you select multiple files in a directory,
    with the whole glitz like click on begin of selection, drag to the end of
    selection, click on begin of sel, shift click on and of self and of course
    ctrl-do whatever to extend a selection.
(C) the same as (B) extended with a list of chosen files, double clicking a
    file or making a selection as in (B), then clicking on an add button will
    make the selected file(s) appear in the list. The list shall behave like
    the files clist wrt click'n'drag, shift-click, etc. - so you can select
    files from there and delete them from the list.

This raises a problem: The users must be able to distinguish between variant
(A) and variant (B), i.e. (s)he must know by seeing the widget if it behaves
(A)- or (B)-style. (C) may be easily recognized I think :-)

Furthermore existing applications shall not break from extending the file
selection, i.e. the new variants must be created differently or manipulated
afterwards (for example: "gtk_file_selection_set_type(GTK_FILE_SELECTION(x),
GTK_FILE_SELECTION_C_TYPE", but I think that tying oneself down to a type of
file selection at creation time will make us less headache than letting the
programmer switch behaviour on the fly, i.e.
"x=gtk_file_selection_new_with_type(GTK_FILE_SELECTION_C_TYPE)" ). Of course
the suggested names are likely to be changed :-)

I also heard people asking for a file selection to filter the shown files
by a pattern (I think like the known fileselection dialogs of a well known
wannabe-OS - "All Files" -> '*', "JPEG Pictures" ->
'*.jpg:*.JPG:*.jpeg:*.JPEG', ...), maybe that could be accomplished in the
same turn.

Questions? Comments?

Nils
-- 
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