Re: [Usability] The virtual meta filsystem druid

["Blad, John Erling" <john erling blad aftenposten no>]

> Please dont call it a "druid", I dont even see what the druid, wizard,
> Assistant* style interface has to do with it though.

> (* Assistant is the preffered term for this in Gnome).

I know, it was just the most used up name I could figure out! :)

> It would be an interesting idea to have some sort of an easy catalogue
or
> virtual filesystem to represent the contents of removeable disks, I
dont
> think it is crazy at all.  There are probably existing technolgies you
> could use to put this together.

I don't think it is very difficult to incorporate something like this
into
Nautilus or some similar file manager.

Generally I don't like specialized programs to do something like that.
Information retrieval should  be very closely linked to your ordinary
workflow. You shouln't have to check for the item in the archives, the
system should tell you it is in the archive..

> The files could be ghosted out, files on CDs already have a read only
> label so adding another label could get ugly.

Yeah, I like that much better!

> lets pretend users have automount and all they need do is insert the
disk
> and hit OK.  I know at this point I'd be wondering where I left the CD
and
> wishing I'd labelled it properly and stacked it sensibly but I dont
think
> would make the idea any less useful.

I was trying to avoid "Ok".. ;) 

> I dont see why this couldnt work, the refernce files/links/shortcuts
would
> be to the last known copy of the file.  Synchronisation could get
messy
> but i dont it would be any less useful for a non-static device like an
MP3
> player.

Perhaps some sort of message when the file is missing?

> Alan Horkan

John