Re: What the hell is wrong with Nautilus

[mike <mike redtux demon co uk>]

On Wed, 2002-10-16 at 14:31, Johnathan Bailes wrote:
> This is the laundry list I have been compiling for awhile. I have been
> using Nautilus ever since it came out with Ximian Gnome and I used it
> first on Redhat 6.4.2.  Its been nearly two years now.
> 
> I understand the some of the following features are dependant on other
> packages.  However, it brings up a good point which is that too many of
> the missing features listed here are dependant on some other project
> that may or may not ever get their stuff together enough to build a true
> user end project to the real world.  The only problem is that with being
> extensible in your programming model is that if no one can build proper
> extensions then you are stuck waiting on other people for functionality
> you need.   
> 
> Some of these things are being worked and others are things I have
> thought but never saw anyone else mention.  In any case, it makes a good
> roadmap of missing features everyone wants, but they always get asked
> about one by one.  This has been written in almost a software review
> style and I hope it sparks a bit of healthy debate if anyone is
> interested enough to read this whole monster mail message.      
> 
> 1. Network browsing is too limited.  There is no way to set options for
> samba browsing.  This should be set up through the network properties
> applet under the desktop properties.  That in a sense makes it a
> gnome-vfs issue but it impacts nautilus directly.  
> 
> What sort of options are missing?  The ability to specify whether or not
> to browse as a user and a default place to keep the default user and
> password information.  There is also no way to set a Default Browser and
> to import a LMHOSTS file.  At the very least, one should be able to
> right click on a share and choose to browse and user and be prompted for
> a username and password.  Does this sound a bit like LinNeighborhood? 
> It should and Nautilus needs these kinds of options.
> 
> It would also be nice for some sort of autmounter browsing tool to
> automatically browse through nfs shares that are publicly available to
> the host.  However, I am not holding my breadth looking at the network
> support built into Gnome2 so far.
> 
> 2. The ability to browse into and out of archives is important missing
> feature.  This is not that big a deal for me.  However, this is a major
> complaint for many other people.  I know why Nautilus currently does not
> have this feature.  I understand that there are issues with using
> gnome-vfs for this function.  However,  it is also apparent that this
> needs to be fixed.  Every single review of nautilus mentions this
> issue.  
> 
> If there is no way to fix this in time for a Gnome 2.0 Nautilus release
> then a file-roller view should be put in place to take the place of this
> missing feature.  Seriously, the file-roller application even uses icon
> hints from nautilus.  I understand the right way is important but a
> quickly hacked view that works well is better than a proper solution
> that never materializes.  
> 
> 3. Missing a search utility.  Once again, the proper way is to build a
> medusa front-end and use it as the engine of a proper search tool.  This
> is the proper way.  The problem is that medusa has issues.  Some of them
> are security related and should not be taken lightly.  However, I cannot
> even possibly imagine using a file manager with no search tool at all. 
> However, the gnome-search-tool has begun to improve and honestly if
> there is no  way to build a proper utility for this it is time to bite
> the bullet and slip a nautilus script to launch the gnome-search-tool in
> the current nautilus directory.  I made a very dead simple script that
> does this simply called search-here.  
> 
> 4. There are very limited create-new features.  As long as the user has
> the proper rights to the directory, they should have the ability to
> create a new blank file, a new folder, or a new launcher.  
> 
> Also if a user can start a new terminal by right clicking on the desktop
> then they should be able to do this in any directory.  The first
> nautilus script everyone gets is the gnome-terminal here scripts.  As
> long as the ability to start a new terminal is available on the desktop
> then it should be available in any directory and the gnome-terminal
> should be started in the current nautilus directory.
> 
> 5. Better copy and cut features that allow users to copy or move files
> directly to the desktop and home directories.  These are the second most
> common style scripts downloaded and should be implemented directly and
> included beside the other cut and copy options.
> 
> 6. The ability right click on a text, postscript and pdf file and send
> it directly to the printer.  No, I do not even want to talk about the
> Gnome print model and all that jazz.  Just send the thing to printer and
> if you want to be fancy send the text file through enscript or something
> first.  

not sure about this - used it on windows and never seems to work
properly

> 7. The ability to right click on a file and send it out as an attachment
> to a message sent through whatever application is set as the Gnome
> Default mailer.  This is not the kind of feature that can be handled
> correctly through a nautilus script and should be implemented directly. 
> 
> 8. Missing rpm view.  There use to be one I think.  I saw a couple of
> links and mailing list replies on this.  However, there should be a way
> to browse into and out of and manipulate (after giving root password
> confirmation even install) rpm files.
> 
> 9. Missing cvs view.  This view is too darn useful and if compiled from
> a CVS HEAD too damn nice to ignore.  For the sake of your favorite
> diety, someone please integrate this or package to go along side
> nautilus like yesterday.  If I hear another word about Cervisia from my
> KDE liking friend I will go all single click on their ass.  
> 
> 
> 10. Mime filtering for Nautilus scripts is reallly needed.  However,
> this would not be too difficult if Gnome2 had a proper freaking way to
> handle file associations and add file actions as well as open actions to
> file types.  
> 
> The only issue with scripts is that many times you want to use the
> category organization of the new file type and properties for Gnome 2.0
> to add a new action based on a Nautilus for the entire group.  Sure, you
> want to only want to run your ps2pdf script on postscript files only. 
> However, you want to run your DOS2Unix script on text files of all types
> including .txt files, .c files .sh files and .pl files for example. 
> Otherwise going through and manually adding all these types makes the
> feature more annoying than helpful.     
>   
> This is needed badly.  Nautilus scripting is one of the most Unix-like
> and powerful of all the Nautilus features however it still feels clunky
> and unelegant due to the lack of this type of feature.
> 
> 11. A core set of Nautilus scripts should ship with Nautilus.  Listen,
> this is not as good if you don't have the above mentioned mime
> filtering.  However, many of the things I mentioned above have at least
> been partially addressed through Nautilus scripts and the best in any
> case should be packaged as part of Nautilus itself.  Nautilus scripting
> is the one feature of Nautilus that universally gets the gee-whiz from
> the programming, Unix crowd right away.  It is one of the file manager's
> best features so show it off.  
> 
> 12. There should be a way to set Nautilus preferences or at least change
> the Nautilus theme directly from the Gnome Control Center.  The Nautilus
> preferences impact the way the desktop itself looks since Nautilus is
> used to draw the thing and it affects the way the icons and folders
> feel.  At the very least there should be a tab under the themes applet
> for setting the Nautilus theme.  It would be nice to have a way to get
> directly to the Nautilus preferences without opening a new Nautilus
> Window if I am already in the desktop preferences or Gnome Control
> Center.  

I think discussions are going on about this

> More Stuff dependant on other projects that I understand are not part of
> core Nautilus functionality -- 
> 
> Gstreamer view.  This really is not the problem of Nautilus per se. 
> Someone has to understand that Gstreamer should be the central part of
> the multi-media infrastructure for Gnome.  I use rhythmbox every single
> day and it rocks and gst-player works for me on avi files though it only
> plays certain mpeg files really well.  Anyway, Nautilus can do without
> it but it should not.
> 
> Missing Galeon2 view.  Once again, this is not really an issue with
> Nautilus.  I have used Galeon2 and the Galeon view and oh my gosh for
> casual browsing where serious plugin support is not needed it is sooo
> wonderful.  Nautilus needs this.

Confused - my galeon2 view works perfectly
> 
> -- 
> Johnathan Bailes	BAE Systems ESI
> 
>  "UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because
>  that would also stop you from doing clever things." - Doug Gwyn 
> --- 
> 
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