Re: [Nautilus-list] hardware view

[David Lee Ludwig <davidl WPI EDU>]

On Sat, 10 Jun 2000, Andy Hertzfeld wrote:

>     There's lots that eventually needs to be done, but we can do the work
> incrementally.  Which part(s) would you like to work on first?

First things first, I want to get the hardware component working with a
real icon view (instead of just Gtk[HV]Box containers.)  This would also
involve making the various icons openable via a [double] click.

Beyond this, I was thinking of creating some sort of plugin system for
hardware devices.  Each of these plugins, which could represent one or
more types of devices, would provide the ability to:

* Probe for existing devices.
* Query devices for various bits of information (such as a device's
name/description, the types of resources it uses/wants, etc.)
* Draw the GUI for a device's information page (what the user would see
when they opened up a device's icon.)
* Provide a custom icon for that device.

There would be a few default plugins, each of which handled a broad range
of devices (such as a PCI device, a USB peripheral, a hard disk,
etc).  However, plugins could be provided to override specific
devices.  For example, a plugin for a particular network card might
override the generic PCI device plugin.  This specific plugin could then
provide a unique information page for that device (displaying device
specific settings/info), as well as unique graphics/icons.

These plugins would be completely separate from the nautilus-hardware-view
binary.  As such, new/updated plugins could be loaded onto a user's system
by downloading and extracting appropriate tarballs (or RPMs).

--
David Ludwig               | "The Linux philosophy is laugh in the face of
davidl<at>wpi.edu          | danger.  Oops.  Wrong One.  'Do it yourself.'
http://www.wpi.edu/~davidl | That's it."                  - Linus Torvalds