Re: Template system

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Wed, 2003-12-17 at 03:21, Manuel Amador (Rudd-O) wrote:
> Well, I have the same concern Julien has. 
> 
> The ideal situation would be the following.
> 
> (warning: hypothetical case following)
> 
> I'm at my computer.  I right click the desktop and select Create new,
> then Text document.  A text document icon appears, ready for me to type
> the name, and once the right name has been written, the right app opens
> with it.  I write some crap.  I write some more crap.  I wipe the crap
> with the spell corrector.  I click close, and answer Save to the Save?
> dialog box.
> 
> Now, I go and locate another document.  I want to create a form letter
> to fill only what's needed to be filled for now on.  I open an existing
> letter, and write some more crap, headers, then save the file.  Once I'm
> done, I right-click the file and select "Use as template".  A special
> nautilus emblem appears.  From that point on, I can now use it from the
> "New" menu without special interaction from my part.
> 
> Now, as you can see, this gets rid altogether of the Templates folder,
> and lets the user manage his/her own templates, in a nonobtrusive way
> (he can make his own template folder).  But this would require Nautilus
> to index templates (or files with a Template emblem).  Hey, I was
> forgetting, we already have that with Medusa!  So this could be done! 
> Medusa would need to talk to the FAM daemon so it can be updated to the
> second though.  But medusa is lacking this and since the fam<->medusa
> deal serves so many other purposes, it would be good if medusa got the
> ability to index in realtime as well.
> 
> (cunning laughter)
> 
> Yes, we can do without the Templates folder.  The user can decide
> whether he puts his templates on a template folder or not.  The system
> won't enforce any magic locations at all.  A special app or Nautilus
> place (in the Go menu) could show a template list.  Perhaps the Medusa
> find tool can find:
> 
> [x] Files which are templates
> 
> if you get what I mean.
> 
> What do you think?

I think its overcomplicated, adding many failure modes, many extra
concepts and depends on a whole chain of dependencies that can break or
work in ways that are not expected. It also further clutters the already
large context menu, and relies on something non-pervasive like emblems
to store fundamental data about the user state. Additionally, making
each user run a fedora indexer that used fam to monitor all files on the
filesystem doesn't work due to scaling issues in fam/dnotify (i.e. it'll
be ass-slow).

Furthermore, even if your proposal could be implemented to work
perfectly I don't think most people would get it really. My guess is
that many people would select "use as a template", and then delete the
file, thinking they don't need it on the desktop (or wherever they
randomly saved it due to the fileselector default location) anymore. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's an oversexed day-dreaming inventor who hides his scarred face behind a 
mask. She's a tortured motormouth doctor who can talk to animals. They fight 
crime!