Re: medusa status?

["Curtis C. Hovey" <sinzui cox net>]

On Thu, 2003-08-14 at 22:44, Sriram Ramkrishna wrote:
> Out of curiosity what is the current status of medusa?  I'm assuming we 
> are targeting 2.6 for integrating this, yes?  I think we should really 
> see some cool stuff when combining medusa and the file dialog box.  

Medusa HEAD works some what.  My stuff is in the reunion_6_0 branch. 
I'm waiting for word from Rebecca if I can move it to HEAD.  The branch
is more stable and does work well as a user application without
installation or configuration hassles.  I've started hacking on it again
since I'm on an aggressive schedule.  I've made a few changes, and begun
porting it to Solaris...I'm surprised it wont compile considering the
number of indexer and search defects listed against it.  I have about 20
defects from bugzilla fixed, but I won't close them until I merge with
HEAD.

As for the file open dialog, absolutely. Selection via filtering a list
all candidate files instead navigating to see a small slice of files
will make opening documents easier.  I suspect that some union of Medusa
and file dialogs couldn't happen until 2.8, but hey, GNOME user have
learned to live for the next file dialog for a long time.

The weakness of open via search dialog is the save dialog isn't
comparable.  The user will still need to play with the hierarchy,
unless....  If you can select and sort files by their attributes, the
user doesn't need a file save dialog that knows about the filesystem,
they need one that lets them tag the file with the right attributes. 
Where it is stored is irrelevant to the user.

Extended attributes are the domain of smart filesystems like ReiserFS. 
User will need a better than the average filesystem to make use of them,
or Medusa becomes both a proxy and a directory service in between the
app and the filesystem (maybe Novell needs to hire me).  I put some
thoughts down a few days ago:
http://members.cox.net/sinzui/blog/medusa/2003-08-12.html

-- 
__C U R T I S  C.  H O V E Y____________________
sinzui cox net
Guilty of stealing everything I am.