Re: The gtk file selector once again

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

The best solution I could think of would be something akin to what other
desktops/systems have used - a "filter" box that lets you select the
type of file you want.  If I'm in the GIMP, and I want to open a file,
there is no reason my Abiword documents should show up - the GIMP should
pass a list of valid MIME types to the file dialog, and then only those
should show.  The user could then have the option of narrowing it down
to one of the mime types, selecting "All Files" or something to see
everything, and perhaps even a custom filter.

If this is done, it needs to be better done than, say, Windows.  In that
OS, say you have Notepad - the MIME types list doesn't have HTML files
in it, yet Notepad can easily edit HTML files.  The MIME types list
should be able to have broad categories like "all text files" (and GIMP
should be able to show "all image files").  Of course, issues could
arise, like if there are MIME types registered for images of type BLAH
but the GIMP doesn't support it, etc.

The actual UI Of the file selector isn't so bad.  Perhaps should be
cleaned up a bit to use icons, be a bit more idiot^wnewbie friendly. 
Only thing I'd like added as a "big feature" would be a list of
links/shortcuts on the side (just for things like Home, CD-ROM, Floppy;
the stuff that's a pain in the ass to get to now, even tho it shouldn't
be).

On Sun, 2002-08-11 at 11:20, Allin Cottrell wrote:

> I guess one could have both globbing and completion.  It might get a
> bit confusing, but the "selected file" entry could use completion as
> at present while a new "filter" entry could added, using globbing to
> limit the right-pane file listing.  If it's a choice between the two
> mechanisms, though, I'd say that globbing ought to win.  I've argued
> this from "first principles".  The other (weighty) consideration, of
> course, is that the great majority of users will expect to find a glob
> filter in a file selection dialog but will not expect auto-completion.
> How many people actually use gtk completion?  I really only figured it
> out properly after reading gtkfilesel.c!
> 
> Allin Cottrell
> 
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