Re: File Dialog

[Vlad Harchev <hvv hippo ru>]

On 25 Aug 2000, Havoc Pennington wrote:

> 
> matthew <matthew@mattshouse.com> writes: 
> > I disagree with this.  Just because the Merced isn't available yet doesn't
> > mean that we should stick to the 486, eh.  We can still upgrade.
> >
> 
> As long as it isn't a new API, just enhancing the widget with the
> current API, then I agree.

 OK, here is my proposal on extending API of the current GtkFileSelection
widget. I should say, that API is the first thing to think about IMO - the
visual appearance is the 2nd thing, and it could be easily altered provided
API is chosen wisely.

 Add the following arguments to the widget:

directory:string  the initial directory

file-pattern:string    the filename pattern. In the ideal world, it should be
	extended regular expression to allow	multiplie patterns in one,
	e.g. (.*\.[jJ][pP][gG])|(.*\.[pP][nN][gG]) will show jpeg and png
	files.

pattern:string - this is the way to set directory and pattern with single
	subpattern in one argument.

filename:string	  initial file selection (or contents of filename entry
	widget, if any). This could be used by wise software that can predict
	what filename the user will use. Setting this to something shouldn't
	be equal to performing tab completion (i.e. shouldn't affect list of
	files)!

show-hidden:bool	whether hidden files (dotfiles on unix and hidden
	files on windows) are shown.

show-fileops:bool	IMO it's a bad idea to have this argument if we are
	going to allow custom file selectors, but we can have this argument
	just for current _internal_ GtkFileSelection (not requiring such
	argument from every implementation of GtkFileSelection).


 Functions:
Functions that set the widget's arguments listed above.

Also ability to set the following predicate functions:
typedef gboolean (*path_predicate_t)(gconst gchar* name,gpointer data);

/*
	When this predicate function is set, only directories for which it 
	returned 'true' will be shown/allowed to be visited/matched.
*/
void gtk_file_selection_set_directory_show_predicate(GtkFileSelection
	*filesel,path_predicate_t pred);

/*
        When this predicate function is set, only files for which it
        returned 'true' will be shown/allowed to be matched.
*/
void gtk_file_selection_set_file_show_predicate(GtkFileSelection
        *filesel,path_predicate_t pred);

Also it would be nice if it was possible to use custom sorting function for
files and directories (separately).


 As for extending visual appearance/usability of current GtkFileSelection:
1) My personal wish - put ".." above "." - i.e. make it 1st item in the list
of directories
2) Add accelerators for each element - each list and probably fileop. Add
accelerator for rescanning current directory. Add accelerator for going up one
level.
3) Probably adding button for going up one level since not every windows-guy
know meaning of "..".
4) While support for X resources is not available in gtk, it would be nice if
 it was possible to set default dimensions for file selection window via
 environment variables (like GTK_FILESEL_WIDTH,GTK_FILESEL_HEIGHT) (as for me,
 the first thing I do when some gtk filesel dialog pops up - increasing its
 size).

 It seems that all functions I propose will be meaningful for any
 implementation of GtkFileSelection.

> Havoc
> 
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> 

 Best regards,
  -Vlad