Re: Desktop context menus and icons should be Gnome intrinsic, not tied to gmc.

["Jesse D. Sightler" <jsight pair com>]

Miles Lane wrote:
 
> A concern I have is that in order to have desktop shortcuts, I have to be
> running gmc (not that running gmc is bad).  I think this association is
> unnecessary and, in fact, just bad UI.  

I tend to agree.  I think that this discussion was held before and it
was decided that desktop icons would be handled by a different
executable.
This may have changed by now, though.

> All base UI functionality should be
> independant of any application or applet. 

Well, it obviously has to be somewhere.  :-)  No matter what you do, the 
functionality is going to be in some application, it's just a matter of
whether or not it should be compiled into the same binary with the file
manager.

> I consider desktop UI to be base
> functionality.  Desktop UI should include of the ability to access desktop
> settings via context sensitive menus using clicks on the desktop (like M$
> Windoze), drag and drop support and the ability to create and manipulate
> desktop shortcuts.  It makes more sense for gmc to be strictly an application
> that enables file manipulation.

The Windows comparison blows this argument to pieces.  :-)  In windows
all of those
actions are handled by a program, "explorer.exe".  In Windows "explorer"
is the one,
true program which serves as a (limited) version of a panel, a file
manager, a desktop
manager, a taskbar, a clock, a recent documents system, and a web
browser.  Admittedly,
some of this is done by calling ActiveX controls, but it is basically
one large, monolithic
executable.

I really don't think that anyone wants that.  The biggest problem is
that this "base UI" MUST
be completely stable.  Right now GMC is not stable at all, and certainly
not as stable
as Win95.

> Implementing the functionality in this way would lower the barrier to entry for
> Gnome newbies who are migrating from Windoze.

I think that Gnome should have a rock solid file-manager that is easy to
use.  Unfortunately
this is not currently the case.  Maybe it will get better.

-- 
---------------
Jesse D. Sightler
http://www3.pair.com/jsight/

"Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead." 
      - Chinese Proverb