Re: Patches improving tree view (multi-root and auto-follow)

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Wed, 2003-06-11 at 15:56, Jürg Billeter wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-06-11 at 14:05, Alexander Larsson wrote:

> > As roberto pointed out, this change pretty much forces you to use
> > multiple windows to copy files using drag-and-drop. That is a huge
> > change for the users that currently do that using the tree view.
> 
> > The main use cases i see for the tree-view is:
> > a) quick browsing for a specific directory. select it and it loads in
> > the main view.
> > b) drag-destination for file copying. Position the tree in the right
> > place, navigate the view to the source directory and dnd the files.
> > 
> > For both these operations the current behaviour is pretty much optimial.
> > What are the operation you want the tree-follows-view behaviour for?
> > 
> > maybe:
> > c) copy files to the parent directory of the directory they're in now
> > d) get an idea of where in the tree the current directory is.
> > 
> > Is there anything else? And is there a possible behaviour that allows
> > that operation but doesn't break the other?
> e) switch quicker between the current and an other directory while
> keeping the overview where in the tree both directories are

Hmm. I don't see what tree-follows-view gives you here. Could you give
an example?

> I have two ideas that probably don't break both uses or at least not
> that much.
> 1) Default behaviour as it is now (without my patch). Add a button "sync
> tree view" or something like that - this button is _not_ an option
> toggle, it is a one-time sync. I've already seen something like that in
> IIRC help browsers, perhaps a version of MS' Html Help. A must - if this
> idea gets implemented - is an easy keyboard shortcut, perhaps an F? key.
> Almost no cons except changing habits for previous users of almost any
> other file manager.
> 2) That's a more in-depth change for previous users of Nautilus but
> perhaps it's not that bad. Behaviour of the tree is to follow the
> current directory. Add a "Links" or "Bookmarks" toolbar where one can
> drop folders (dragged from tree or from list view). Now the user can
> drop files or folders on the folders in the toolbar. If you click on a
> link you will be redirected, of course. If one doesn't need a link or a
> bookmark anymore, one can just drag it out of Nautilus' window and the
> link will get deleted. This could be really helpful if you need a
> directory often. And the purpose of the current tree view is almost
> replaced. The only con I see (beside being a deeper change) is that one
> doesn't have an idea where in the tree the bookmark folders are.
> 
> Just two ideas, I don't know what the two groups of tree view users'
> opinion on these is.

I also would like some other users opinions on this.

> > I see. However, I don't know if an idle loop is the best way to do that.
> > The idle handler may run quite a lot before the parent directories have
> > all loaded. This is very close to busy-waiting. Perhaps there is a
> > better way to wait that just wakes up once at the correct time.
> 
> Hm, yes, perhaps we could catch the row_deleted signal of the tree model
> and check if it's the dummy row which got deleted. Does this sound
> reasonable?

It does sound reasonable, but I don't know the tree model code that
well. I think you'd have to try implementing it to see if it works.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a hate-fuelled moralistic romance novelist in drag. She's a psychotic 
paranoid research scientist living homeless in New York's sewers. They fight 
crime!