Re: GNOME and the File selection dialog box

[Nils Philippsen <nils rhlx01 rz fht-esslingen de>]

Hello,

My opinion on this request is to let this partially happen in GTK. Some of the
features missing are not GNOME specific but should really go into the GTK file
selection. My idea is to have the GTK file selection (or - more generally
spoken - all metawidgets like filesel, colorsel, fontsel...) so extensible,
extended with hooks for nearly anything that a specific GNOME file selection
could be done without hazzle by subclassing the GTK file selection. I don't
think it makes much sense if the GNOME people have to reimplement it all just
because the GTK file selection lacks interfaces for modification (tried it
myself, as some people might remember, it was real hard to do).

On Sat, 29 Aug 1998, Miguel de Icaza wrote:

> 
> Hello dear GNOMErs,
> 
>    The GNOME project needs a decenct default dialog box for file
> saving and loading.  The file selector widget in Gtk sadly is not what
> we need for various reasons:
> 
>      - It lacks internationalization support.	
> 

This issue is of interest to the GTK file selection, too. It simply mustn't be
that you can't even change the buttons' labels. While some may be comfortable
in using an English program, others may not.

>      - It lacks gnome-stock support.
> 
>      - It lacks gnome-entry support (ie, history of previously
>        selected files)
> 
>      - It lacks metadata support (details in a second).
> 
>    So we need to write a gnome file selector that has at least the
> above features, but I would like very much to add some extra things
> that I have noticed we need.   I have listed some of the needs I think
> we need, and I would appreciate if people could tell me which other
> features they would like to see in the GNOME file selector or what
> things about look and feel are important in the GNOME file selector. 
> 
>      - Optionally let the programmer provide a number of recognized
>        file types to load.  Probably just a list of extensions that
>        the program recognizes.
> 
>        Stuff like: ("All files", "*"), ("Lotus 1-2-3 files", "*.wk1")
>        and so on.

This, too, is not GNOME specific, so it should go into the GTK filese --
Of course with the provisions made above (easily possible extension of the GTK
filesel, ...).

> 
>      - Provide a way for the programmer to specify an
>        auto-type-select- upon-user-selecting-file feature.  By default
>        we could provide a callback that would do regexp matching on
>        the file, if the user clicks on a file with a ".jpg" extension,
>        we would auto-select "JPEG file (*.jpg)" on the file type
>        region. 
> 

As I mentioned above, this really does belong into the GTK file selection
(there's nothing GNOME specific in here)

>      - Provide a way to make it extensible: Programmers should be able
>        to extend an existing file selection dialog box with stuff like
>        minimized previews of the data content (by packing/appending
>        further widgets to the file selection).
> 

Same as above.

>      - Metadata support: Tom Tromey's metadata support would be very
>        handy in this situation, we could lookup the key
>        "Quick/MiniIcon" for every file displayed on the file selector
>        and provide an icon next to the file when displaying.
> 
>      - We need to support the features founds on the Gtk file
>        selector: completion and file operations.

If the then GNOME file selection could be subclassed from the GTK file
selection you would get this at no cost. Code duplication should be avoided
where possible.

Nils
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nils Philippsen                  @college: nils@rhlx01.rz.fht-esslingen.de
Vogelsangstrasse 115             @home:    nils@wombat.dialup.fht-esslingen.de
D 70197 Stuttgart                phone:    +49-711-6599405
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe I should patent stupidity so every lawyer will owe me BIG !!
(mpare/at/cadvision/dot/com)