Re: [(RE)ANNOUNCING] nautilus-open-terminal

[Dave Ahlswede <mightyquinn letterboxes org>]

On Wed, 2005-02-23 at 23:04 +0200, Ionut Cotoi wrote:
> To make everybody happy I think you should consider adding a key to
> gconf from where the "poweruser" can add Open Terminal back to the
> Desktop context menu (like for nautilus  browser/spatial mode).

The thing is, as it's been said, the current behavior doesn't make
sense.

I think one can look at the terminal two ways from a UI perspective--

1) The Terminal is a regular, non-document handling application, similar
to the System Monitor, or Calculator. Under this system, the terminal
should be launched like those apps. From the menu, or with a shortcut
icon on the panel, or keystroke-- the only other external app invoked by
the Desktop context menu is the background setter, which directly
affects the desktop. 

2) The Terminal is a folder-handling application, similar to a Nautilus
window or a Gthumb window. In this case, it makes sense for the terminal
to be invokable from any folder window (including the Desktop), and it's
inconsistent to have it only accessible from the Desktop, and the
built-in Desktop context menu opens the terminal in the home folder
whether or not the Desktop is Home. Christian's extension handles this
system quite well.

I don't think anyone's debating the relative merits of either (I'm
certainly not, both are useful). But Nautilus is currently in sort of a
gray murk between the two, and that's not good. Terminal opening
shouldn't be built-in, since it's adding another item to an
already-very-large context menu, but the extension is there for those
who want to use it.