Re: Gtk2::FileChooser - hour and minute stats

[muppet <scott asofyet org>]

On Feb 12, 2006, at 8:22 AM, zentara wrote:

> I saw this question on the newsgroups today, and it made me think  
> about this shortcoming in the FileChooser.
>
> It only shows the day of last modification, which makes it tricky  
> to file files all made on the same day.
>
> So is there a gtkrc setting, or some widget setting to add extended  
> times to the FileChooser?
>
> Or would we have to make a custom widget to display the extra file  
> time info?

It looks that way.  The modification time column of the file list  
view in GtkFileChooserDefault uses a cell data function to fetch and  
format the modification time, and this function  
(gtkfilechooserdefault.c:7041:list_mtime_data_func), it specially  
coded to say "Today"  or "Yesterday", or to ask g_date_strftime() to  
use "%A" for days within the last week, and "%x" for anything else.   
These strings are all localized, and there is no logic for  
alternative formats.

It is feasible for you to create and use your own widget that  
implements the FileChooser interface, but this is a nontrivial task  
and would make your application inconsistent with the rest of your  
desktop.  Then again, you could patch your local copy of gtk+ to use  
strftime("%F %T",...) instead of all that fancy logic, and then you'd  
have this behavior in all of your apps.  Or, make the patch choose  
which format to use based on a setting and submit the patch to the gtk 
+ maintainers.


If you just want to be *able* to find the mod time in the file  
chooser, without needing to see all of them at a glance, and just in  
your one app, you can set up an "extra" widget and update its  
contents with the modification time when a new file is selected.  The  
example "file_chooser.pl" that comes with Gtk2 will get you started.


> I know that mozilla (gtk based ) will display a more informative  
> time string.

Careful...  that depends on many factors.

The Mozilla i have here is the stock FC2 Mozilla.  It uses the  
"native" file selection dialogs, and therefore uses a stock Gnome  
GtkFileChooser.  The "Modified" column shows "Today", "Yesterday",  
"Friday", and MM/DD/YYYY dates.

However, i installed Firefox into /usr/local from mozilla.org --  
*not* Fedora packages, and thus not using native dialogs.  The file  
selection widget in here is a XUL-implemented thing that i have seen  
on Mozilla since they started using XUL; vaguely reminiscent of  
Win98's file selection dialog in "details" mode.  This one shows  
three columns -- "Name", "Size", and "Last Modified", which has the  
DD/MM/YY hh:mm:ss, and even offers which columns to hide.


It's interesting to note that gtkfilechooserdefault.c contains code  
to create a "Size" column in the browse view, but it is "#if 0"'d out.

--
Brian: If i recall correctly, this is the physics department.
Chris: That explains all that gravity.
    -- Family Guy, "The Story on Page One"