Re: [Nautilus-list] features and minor nitpicks

[Darin Adler <darin bentspoon com>]

On Wednesday, July 25, 2001, at 06:31  AM, Matthew J. Doller wrote:

> 1 - would it be possible to use the metafiles to hide arbitrary files?
> There are a few files in my home directory, for example, that pop up when
> using certain applications that just add to the clutter.  For instance,
> minicom leaves minicom.log, evolution leaves the evolution directory, the
> java plugin for mozilla and netscape (at least last time i checked they
> did) leave java trace files.
> right clicking on these files and selecting "Hide this file in Nautilus"
> or something a little more understandable might be good.

We've heard this request before, and always in the context of the home 
directory too. There are a couple small points to resolve before doing it.
 First, if we had such a feature, we'd always have to read the metafile 
first before displaying any files in a directory. I think we already do 
that, but I'm not sure. Second, if we had such a feature, I'd want a UI to 
make the files appear and disappear. I don't think that having people edit 
the XML file directly with a text editor is sufficient. Some way to make 
files disappear would probably be easy, but I am not so sure about ways to 
make files appear.

Someone other than me working on this feature might be willing to tackle 
it without worrying so much about those issues. If someone went to the 
trouble, I'd be happy to consider the patch without being too picky about 
the details, I think.

> 2 - speaking of metafiles, could the trash use a metafile to keep track of
> certain information about the files that are in it?  Basically, could it
> store the location that file A was deleted from, the date it was deleted,
> etc...  Yes, i know this is how the windows recycle bin works, but i think
> it would help if when you look in your trash you see files named "main.c"
> "another copy of main.c" and "3rd copy of main.c", but you know that they
> are all different files

That's a feature that was also implemented on Macintosh. I think it would 
be fine if someone wants to do it. It's would be about 3 or 4 days work 
for me, I think, and probably more for anyone else.

> 3 - I've noticed that while using the ximian-south theme (which might make
> this an issue to take up with ximian) that some emblems do not show up
> while in "icon view" mode.  I've made a few emblems from jimmacs folders
> for music, binaries, etc., so that i can label my folders, and the changes
> remain across theme changes.  I first noticed it when applying one of my
> emblems to a symlink, and again whey applying it to a read-only directory,
> so it may have something to do with the mini-emblems already on the files.

If you could narrow this down to a specific set of reproducible steps, I'd 
be happy to look into it. From your description alone I can't deduce what 
the bug might be.

    -- Darin