My little wishes list on VFS

["Shu Hung (Koala)" <koalay gmail com>]

Hello,

 

2006/1/3, dannym <danny milo gmx net>:

> Hi,
>
> Looks like the right place :)

 

Good to hear that :)

 

This would be a band-aid.

A programmer should not force users to set gibberish properties (I'm a
programmer and _even I_ hate those select charset encoding dialogs -
can't the computer figure it out on it's own? After all, I typed the
text just fine, so how is it my business to tell the computer _how to
unbreak what he himself broke_?)

(also type "iconv -l" to see why putting this in a combo box is a really
really bad idea: about 960 !! items)

Better course of action, ordered most desireable/clean first:
1) fix the VFS protocol / underlying protocol to actually read the
encoding from where it has been stored - the computer DID store the
encoding somewhere so he can read what he wrote later, riight? That
means you, FTP (and UNIX filesystems, for that matter - though the
latter is uniformly moving to UTF-8 - good) ;)

2) If 1) is not doable, put a dummy file on the server volume that
contains the encoding and make gnome-vfs read and honor that. It is
better when the *admin* can set the encoding than when the user has to -
the user usually gives a damn if the computer stores the text in celtic
runes internally, really

3) If all that doesn't work, fall back to a default and force everyone
to either use that default or do 1) or 2) instead. Do _not_ put encoding
into user-visible GUI.

For an admin, maybe there should be a way to override the detected
volume via a unbreak-me-list in gconf or /etc or the homedir or
something.... as a band-aid. But it is not there to stay first-class.

 

VFS is set and mount by user. Different server (e.g. FTP, SMB, WebDAV)
may have different encoding but not all protocols have encoding information
carried.

I have setup a FTP server on my Windows with Filezilla Server. My Windows
workstation uses big5 (Chinese Traditional) as default encoding. When I use
VFS to mount it, I always get filenames like "This is My XXXXX.mpg (invalid unicode)"
and I can do nothing on it.

 

I'm not sure if auto-detect is the best idea. Encoding detection for Chinese
characters always goes wrong. If I take my experience on browser, detection
get wrong result 1 time out of 20. If auto-detection get me wrong, user will
need a way to fix it.

I think it is better to give user an "Advanced" option menu like Filezilla 3.
By default, VFS will autodetect the encoding of the filesystem. But user
can, on other hand, set the default encoding of the filesystem to mount.

 

 

>         I have a workstation with fileilla server on Windwos XP. The
>         filesystem is in Big5
>         but seems VFS does notice that. It would be best to let user
>         to configure the
>         charset of a VFS folder instead of just use UTF-8.

It would be best if the darn protocol figured out the charset on it's
own and stopped bothering the user with gibberish ;)

 

I agree if the detection ALWAYS success. If not, user should be able
to fix it on GUI. I think an "Advanced Option" button and extra option
dialog is useful in case.

 

So what you actually want is a "test this connection" button so that you
can see if the information is correct without closing the dialog?

 

In real case, I sometimes get the username of WebDAV or FTP wrong in
initial VFS setting. Right now, I can do nothing but set a new VFS allover
again. I wish to have a way to edit options of an existing VFS folder instead.

 

>
>      1. agreement between menu icon reaction and desktop icon reaction
>         it is a little bit confuseing with the desktop icons and menu
>         icons. If you right click
>         the icon menu, the folder will show up. However, if you right
>         click the desktop icon,
>         it gives you a menu for properties and unmount. It would be
>         best if I can get the
>         menu for properties and unmount when I right click either one
>         icon.

What do you mean? What menu icon? Where?

 

In Gnome 2.12, there are 3 menu on the top-left corner: "Application", "Location"
and "Settings". Creating a new VFS will automatically create an icon on "Location"
menu and the destop. If you right click icon on "Location" menu, you will open
the folder. If you right click the desktop menu, you will open an option menu right
next to the icon.

 

Yeah, admin setting, desireable. As a side note, having ~ 100 volume
desktop icons show up on the desktop of a storage area network is weird,
believe me ;)

 

I think it is best to put it in "Advanced Option" too.

 

> What menu is that?

 

The menu that you'll get when you right click a desktop icon.

 

>         If so, right-clicking the icon on location menu would give a
>         menu with these options:
>              1. Add this item to panel
>              2. Add this item to desktop
>              3. Unmount thie filesystem
>
What application?

 

Gnome's "Location Menu"

> > These are just my little wishes to VFS and I think most people would
> > be happy to see these.
>
> Well, first and foremost I'd like the underlying problems to be fixed.
> If that is not possible, I'd like workarounds for admin settings on the
> _server_ side be implemented and if that fails too, I'd like it to break 
> really badly so the server author gets a lot of complaints and fixes the
> darn program :)
>
> cheers,
>   Danny

 

Encoding may be a problem of the FTP protocol itself. Unless FTP will
have a big revolution over encoding, it is better to find other solution.

Thanks for reply

 

Koala Yeung