File selection widget class

[Johnathan Bailes <bailesj mindspring com>]

The file selection widget class is missing some very important features
common to almost every other major gui toolkit.

Many people have tried to add features to it but they are all mising one
feature or another.  Is there any plans for an edit of this before Gnome
goes to user release?

My boss goes crazy everytime he has to attach a file from a common
network share he has to use for some of his reports without list view to
sort the files by size, date, or type he sometimes has a hard time
hunting for what he wants.  The file open and save dialogs are pretty 
spartan.

I have seen people mention this feature or that feature that was missing
and I saw one request in bugzilla for a filter.  However, I have not
seen a laundry list so here it is and should I go bugzilla on this or is
it a dup of a bug already entered?

1. There are no shortcuts by default to the home, desktop, documents and
other folders like the Ximian edits.

2.  There is no filter like the one I have seen in the gtk file
selection edit I saw once.  This is the most implemented addition I have
seen in the file_selection alternatives.  

3. There is no icons view.  Seeing the icons especially if it either
ties into nautilus for icon hint or used gnome default style icons would
make picking out files from a list easier.  Anjuta implements this
pretty well.

4.  There is no list view.  My boss is correct that these gtk/gnomey
(yes, he says it that way "g-nomey") apps need a way to sort the files
in the list by name, date, size and type. This is THE MOST important
request.  Glimmer has this but only lists by name, size and file
attributes which is limited.  You need at least a Date Modified column
and file type is more useful than attributes IMO.     

This is not only the kind of thing that drives a potential linux convert
nuts but a developer already hostile to moving to linux (there are some)
will have a field day on this complaining about the primitive nature of
the interface.  

I have already gone through this with a developer in my boss's office as
I explained to my boss that the file selection box did not work the way
he wanted it to.  

This is a widget class that every user hits every day and it always
stinks ever since Gnome 1.2.  It seems like I have gotten use to it
because I have been a Gnome user for so long and it took a true end user
for me to recognize I needed to send this email. 

Is there anyway it will be fixed before the Gnome 2.2 or whatever
release that will be termed a user's release?

-- 
Johnathan Bailes

At midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Go out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do.
--Bob Dylan