Nautilus View / Listeners compared with Windows Namespace extension questions

[Matthew J Hicks <mhicks us ibm com>]

I have been working with Nautlius Views, Listeners, GNOME VFS's, etc. to
try and mimic the functionality provided by Windows Namespaces (or Shell)
extensions in GNOME.  It seems like some of the concepts are slightly
different, so I was wondering if anyone could clear some of this up for me.

What I think I know:
1. It appears that the best way to control the actual contents of the file
manager is through a GNOME VFS (to provide a virtual view of some data).
2. The right-context menu can be controlled by implementing a
Bonobo/Listener - are there any other / better ways?

What I know I don't know:
Here are the areas that I can provide using a Windows Namespace extension,
but haven't figured out how to do it in Nautilus yet:

1.  Merge menu's into the Nautilus toolbars while still in user's same
view.  For instance, to be able to add 'Foo' to the File menu while still
in the icon view.  I have been able to implement a new view and then do
menu merging, but I want to be able to modify the main menus and still let
the users choose between icon view / list view, etc.

2.  Control / modify the tree view in the left pane of the file explorer.
For instance, when viewing the burn:/// vfs, the tree view in the left pane
still displays the regular file menu (/ etc boot, etc.).  Are there any
hooks into that view to be able to add vfs's etc. to the tree?

3. Moving the vfs url's (or some form of them) into the standard GTK dialog
boxes.  Although I don't think this is as critical a subject, it is the
last thing that the Windows namespace provides that I haven't figured out
how to do in GNOME.

I've got to say that I am really impressed with all the work that has gone
into Nautilus - quite impressive!

- Matt