Re: Theory question on desktop and gmc

[Tim Allen <timallen godzilla zeta org au>]

On Tue, 22 Jun 1999, Michael ROGERS wrote:

> >I really would like to have some kind of logical delimiter between
> >left-drag and middle-drag.. sometimes I spend a minute or so just trying
> >to figure out what kind of weird mouse events one widget listens to that
> >others don't.
> 
> Yeah, it would be useful if Gnome could give the middle button a universal
> meaning, like the right button has under both Windows and Gnome. I think
> "user defined" would be a good idea - being able to bind the middle button
> to one of the context menu actions in each case.

"User-defined" is all very well, frankly I'd be happy with "consistent".
Binding to a context-menu item could be confusing - how do I know which
item it's bound to? The default? Double clicking does that (or should -
unless it's a button..) Some random item? What if that item isn't
applicable?

I think if all drag operations can be done with a left-drag, do them all
with a left drag. Right-drag brings up a menu on release. Middle-drag...?

Hey, here's an idea - Traditionally in X, middle-click is paste, right? So
we can use middle-click for maybe pasting files.. Imagine - Select a bunch
of files in gmc on one desktop, zip to another desktop with another gmc,
and hit the middle button - boom, files appear. Possibly also, select a
bunch of files, go to a window (say, gnumeric or whatever the GNOME
wordproc is) and hit the middle-button - files are inserted/filenames
inserted/OLE-style links, whatever.

Yeah, I guess it's just dragging with a different face.. I'm guessing that
you can't drag between desktops so this would come in handy (well, maybe
you can in E, but not in window maker). And it *is* consistent with X11
generally.

I'm still stuck for something to bind to middle-drag, though..
 
> >Oh, and something I just thought of. I can make a Launcher on the
> >desktop, then drag it (left-drag) to the panel. Then I can't drag it back
> >*off* the panel - I have to remove it and create it again..
> 
> If the mouse button release (not the mouse button press) triggered the
> launcher, 

Which it does. 

Actually, I can drag the Gnome-Terminal off the panel on to the desktop
with left drag.. I'm sure that didn't work with a normal launcher, though.
Could the fact that it's a "Applet4.desktop" instead of a normal file be a
factor?

> you could bind left-drag to something different from left-click. I
> really think this should be implemented if possible, because it doubles the 
> number of different actions you can perform with the mouse.

I once tried to design a UI that used only mouse-operations (for a 3D
modeller).. Quite fun. Lots of drag/drop and clicky things. :)

> >> I like the suggestion of just typing on the desktop, instead of using
> >> mini-commander or a terminal.
> >
> >Interesting thought - except that I have Window Maker set on sloppy focus,
> >so that I can just shunt the pointer off the window I'm interested in onto
> >the desktop without losing correct focus. The side effect is that the
> >desktop never gets the focus.
> 
> Couldn't you push the cursor onto the window frame?

*cough* Have you seen Window Maker screenshots? The only window manager
with less decoration is 9wm (or E on a bad day, I guess ;)

> I like what wm2 does

Either Window Maker does it too, or it's a feature of this funky, slow,
bloated gnome-terminal. :)

> (although I'm not sure it's deliberate) - when you start typing the mouse
> pointer disappears, and it reappears when you move the mouse. This means I
> don't have to click on a text box and then shunt my pointer out of the way
> like I do in Windows.

Say - I wish gnobots did that. Actually, I wish more things did that. 

> >Having to find a small patch of desktop to click and type could be quite
> >tedious. I would much prefer being able to shunt my mouse to some corner
> >of the screen and type - that's one reason I like Mini-Commander, because
> >when I put my mouse over the panel, it usually gets the focus - and I can
> >type.
> 
> I guess you could allow typing over the foot menu too.

Or possibly have mini-commander be greedy with the focus. Or just swallow
an xterm, even. 

In related news, I've replaced my swallowed-wterm-running-bc with a
swallowed-wterm-running-genius (text-mode, obviously), and I'd just like
to say that genius is now my calculator of choice, and I very much wish I
could carry it around with me (almost as much as I wish I could carry a
light-sabre around with me). 

If my famous DeskPad ever gets written, please make it use genius as a
back-end instead of bc. Thanks. ;)


Tim Allen