Re: [gtk-list] Re: file selector

[Thomas Leonard <tal197 ecs soton ac uk>]

On Fri, 16 Apr 1999, Brian Brunswick wrote:

> In article <fd43c3f248%marble@executor.karoo.co.uk> you write:

[ snip ]

> >Why not just provide a space where you could drag and drop a file from
> >a file manager? That way file selection only needs to be done in one
> >place (the file manager).
> >
> >Saving could also be done by providing an icon which could be dragged
> >and dropped to the filer.
> >
> >(This works very well in the RISC OS operating system, but would likely
> >be a shock to Windows users. RISC OS has no load dialog - you just drop
> >from the filer, and the save dialog is a tiny filer window with the one
> >file icon and an 'OK' button to save to the last place you saved to.
> >Some apps also provide a 'Kill' icon, and the save dialog is
> >automatically presented if you close an unsaved document.)
> >
> >Just a thought:)
> >~A.
> >
> 
> Aha somebody else is a refugee from RISC OS! We've been translating
> our Optima application across to gtk, and wanted to preserve the RISCOS
> style dragging to avoid disturbing our users.
> 
> I argued for it a bit over in gtk-app-devel a few weeks ago. What
> people don't really seem to realise is that the standard file
> dialogues are already ***over complicated*** - its like building an
> /entire/ file manager into every application. Instead, gtk should just
> have hooks that can link in with whatever file manager the USER
> actually wants, along with a default gtk file manager that implements
> these load/save dialogues in whatever way is preferred. If we have to
> have all this stuff in the library anyway, lets at least make it
> capabale of copy/rename etc as well as load/save.

[ snip ]

> We have patches to xtree to support this, but are currently lacking
> anything more like the riscos filer.

Hi, I'm currently writing a RISC OS style filer for X windows, which
already supports dnd loading and saving. I'm currently in discussions with
John Lindal about adding the extensions to the XDND protocol.

Note that the protocol on my web site is now a little out of date. Watch
this space...


Thomas Leonard
-- 
tal197@ecs.soton.ac.uk
2nd year computer science
RISC OS freeware to download at http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~tal197/