Re: [Nautilus-list] Open new window for each folder or file

[René Seindal <rene seindal dk>]

On Fri, Mar 29, 2002 at 11:45:01AM +0200, Tuomas Kuosmanen wrote:
> On Thu, 2002-03-28 at 14:55, Glen Gray wrote:
>     On Thu, 2002-03-28 at 12:20, René Seindal wrote:
>     > Hi,
>     > 
>     > I'm trying to get used to use a graphical shell, which is a bit weird,
>     > as I'm the kind of person that would do image processing from the
>     > command line.  Nautilus is very nice, though.
>     > 
>     We like it :-D
> 
> While you are at it, try the "use home directory as desktop" - it is
> scary at first when all that crap on your homedir pops up on the desktop
> and you remember you always decided to clean it up someday.. (I know
> what I am talking about here .. :-)

I did that, I had a good cleanup of my homedir, and while I like the
idea of Desktop = $HOME a lot, in practice there are problems.  Not huge,
but annoying, like having stuff on the desktop I didn't place there.
That really annoys me - it's my desktop and nobody should put things on
it without my permission :-).  It's like having people move the piles on
your desk around so you can't find anything anymore.

I'd have 12 elements on my desktop if I used $HOME, but several would
just waste space because they are seldom, if ever used and there is
little or nothing I can do about it.

Lets take the twelve items one at a time.

"rene's Home" makes no sense, and I have noticed a discussion to
eliminate it when Desktop == $HOME.  That'll be nice.

"server" is a NFS mount with the user option but mounted by default.  I
didn't ask for it on the desktop, it's just there.  This should be
optional.

"arkiv" is a normal folder, my archive.
"consult" is a normal folder, for my company.

"evolution" is .. well you all know.  I have no reason to go there, so
it should be hidden but it isn't.

"images" is a normal folder with a few thousand photographs and other
images.

"programs" is where I keep the software I'm working on.

"setup" contains all my setup files.  I used to have bin/, lib/, emacs/,
icons/, ... folders in my home dir, now all setup related stuff is here
in one folder.  Very nice for backups, so I owe nautilus that one :-)

"tmp" is a scratchpad where I dump varia that clutters the desktop.
Every so often I clean it up.

"EBJKS.ebjkeystore" is my bank's keyfile.  The extension allowed me to
setup a special mime-type and have the icon launch netscape when clicked
so it is not entirely useless.  Gotta be here if I want my money :-) but
it really shouldn't be visible.

"plugin131.trace" is from the mozilla java plugin.  Keeps appearing.

"Trash" is trash but cannot be trashed :-)


I'd like four or five of the twelve items to go away.  They can't be
deleted, renamed or moved, so they should be hidden from view.  What is
really needed to finish the cleanup and have a nice tidy desktop is the
ability in nautilus to right-click on an item and select "Hide this
file" (or similar).

I see two possibilities, not mutually exclusive.

There are already preferences to hide files matching "*~" and ".*".
This could be generalised to hide files matching any of a series of
patterns.  This is probably how its implemented, but there is no way to
change the patterns.  Maybe I'd like to hide "OLD*" or "*.copia" or
"*.{log,aux,blg,bbl}".  A way to change the patterns would be nice.
This is and should remain a global setting.

For individual files it would be nice to be able to say: I don't want to
see this file here anymore, like mentioned above (right-click, hide).
To get it back it would be necessary to go the preferences, select "Show
hidden files" to get the icon back, then right-click and select "Show
this file in default view" (or something like it).  Since it is rather
hard to get the icon back and the disappearance might confuse many
users, it would probably be necessary with a confirmation/explanation
dialog before hiding the file.  The user should be told that the file is
*not* deleted, just hidden from view, and how to reinstate the icon.

If I could be rid of the few things in my home dir I don't control, I
would definitely use the Desktop = $HOME option.

> Or, as a shell person, Ctrl-shift-O does the same and is faster if you
> like shortcuts.

Thanks.  I hardly ever use the menubar, and the shortcuts aren't shown
in the right-click menu, so I hadn't noticed it.



-- 
René Seindal (rene seindal dk)              http://www.seindal.dk/rene/