Re: [Usability] The virtual meta filsystem druid

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

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).

On Thu, 24 Jun 2004, Blad, John Erling wrote:

> Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 22:49:05 +0200
> From: "Blad, John Erling" <john erling blad aftenposten no>
> To: Gnome Usability List <usability gnome org>
> Subject: [Usability] The virtual meta filsystem druid
>
> Just a crazy idea..

it is often difficult to know if an idea is crazy until you actually try
and implement it.

> Imagine you can somehow flag a removable disk as
> something you want to keep an image of even after
> you remove it from your system.

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.

> Let us assume that this image can be traversed and
> that all files look pretty close to what they should
> look like, but perhaps with an added symbol to make

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

> it clear that it is not the real thing and without any large data
> structures.

> Now, a user clicks on some virtual file that is no
> longer part of the system and a dialog pops up with
> a statement "Insert disk xxyy" with a "Mount" button.

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.

> This won't work with a disk that isn't static in nature,
> for example a digital camera. But hey, why would you flag

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.

> I guess this should go to the Nautilus list..

Perhaps, but I think this kind of cataloging functionality could be
incorporated into application that is designed to help with managed
backups.  If you look at the problem from a differnt angle you have better
luck searching for existing tools that do something similar.  If you do
not plan on trying to implement this yourself you might float the idea by
developers of media player applications (like say Rhythmbox) as they are
just the kind of people who are interested in managing their large
collection of files and might just want to develop the idea.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan