Re: [Nautilus-list] remembering different properties in different directories?

[John Sullivan <sullivan eazel com>]

on 10/16/01 10:11 AM, Ryan Muldoon at rpmuldoon students wisc edu wrote:

> One thing that I was thinking would be pretty cool, and possibly easy
> enough for me to try my hand at implementing, was letting nautilus
> remember different window attributes for different directories.
> 
> For example, if I click on my home dir, I'd like the default nautilus
> size window, with icons and the sidebar.  But, I'd like to click on my
> music directory, and get a tall window with no sidebar or location bar.
> 
> Basically, I'd like to be able to have Nautilus remember the following
> things *per directory*:
> - window geometry
> - window position
> - Hide/show sidebar (and perhaps what tab is up)
> - hide/show toolbar
> - hide/show location bar
> - hide/show status bar
> - View (Of course, nautilus already does this)
> 
> One issue that I can see is that users may be weirded out if their
> window keeps jumping around and changing as they click on different
> folders.  But this is only relevant in the case that clicking a folder
> doesn't open a new window.  A possible workaround (that I don't really
> like) is to only have this work with desktop icons.  Another is only
> make this option available when you're in the "open folders in new
> window" mode.  
> 
> So, here are my questions for the list:
> 1. Is this a desireable/useful feature (that would be accepted)?

Window geometry & position are already saved per-directory in "open folders
in new window" mode. I think they could also be usefully done per-directory
in "open folders in same window" mode, if some thought was put into when to
save the positions (Any time the window is moved or resized? Only when the
window is closed? If the user types a new location into an existing window,
do you remember the current size/position with the new location?). It's
clear to me that you would only restore the positions when opening a new
window -- moving the window when you navigate within the window to a
different URL is obviously silly.

I would argue that the sidebar/toolbar/location bar/status bar visibility is
in most people's usage patterns not generally dependent on directory. That
is, I think that people who like having the location bar up would want it up
all the time, and people who don't like it would want it down all the time.
I'd like to hear more reasons for making it directory-specific.

> 2. Is this something that could be done relatively easily?

It's easy to add any particular piece of info to the per-directory metadata.
It would be easy to check the per-directory preferences and show/hide the
bars when switching locations or opening a new window. To finish the job,
when the per-directory setting changes (e.g. the user selects the "Hide
toolbar" menu item), you'd also have to check for other open windows showing
the same location, and change them also. This would probably feel odd, but
if you didn't do it you'd be inconsistent.

> 3. Does the geometry/position stuff have to coordinate with sawfish
> somehow?

The window manager might have to get involved if you try to save the window
position right at the moment the window is resized/moved. I seem to recall
that there was no straightforward way to notice the user dragging the window
to a new location. If you only save the window position when the window is
closed, then the window manager shouldn't need to get involved -- I'm 99%
sure that this is how it currently works in "open folders in new window"
mode.

> 4. What files are relevant to this work?

Sorry, I haven't got the sources handy at this moment and my memory isn't
good enough to answer this.

John