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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Classic Menu in kde43 looks good,
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2009-06-14 18:05:42
Message-ID: 200906141205.48352.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Sunday 14 June 2009, A.J. Venter wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Aaron J. Seigo<aseigo@kde.org> wrote:
> > On Saturday 13 June 2009, A.J. Venter wrote:
> >> mailing before posting something) - but it doesn't handle .desktop
> >> files nicely - it shows the filename rather than the description.
> >
> > it does when viewing the "Desktop" folder (for which it uses the
> > desktop:/ kio slave)...
>
> I looked now, - it does indeed, if you select the Desktop folder menu
> entry, typing the path bypasses the ioslave.
>
> >> Even on the desktop I think showing the description/Name entry from
> >> the .desktop file rather than the filename makes sense. After all if
> >> you have a folderview of your Desktop folder, it is likely full of
> >> shortcuts from various apps - and the filename isn't the part you are
> >> actually interested in - it's the program name you want to see.
> >
> > the trick would be in making renaming the file from the UI work properly;
> > since it would actually be editing the file itself, not renaming the
> > entry in the file system. moreover i think it would likely end up with
> > "fun" situations where the user sees "Kontact" but if they create a new
> > file called kontact.desktop in the same folder "Kontact" gets
> > overwritten!
>
> I see the logic here - though I don't think it's insurmountable.
> Firstly the overwrite problem should just not happen - why can't the
> UI show two files with identical displayed names and show the real
> names in the detailed view ? 

that's not the problem; the problem is that it shows something different from 
the filesystem, so when trying to create a file called "kontact.desktop" is 
would overwrite the file apparently called "Kontact". and edge case, 
certainly, but rather confusing when you run into it. 

(not showing file extensions in the file manager on windows was often a great 
source of hilarity.)

> Still I actually tend to agree that the
> filemanager should focus on real filenames - it's primary purpose is
> to manage files, launching programs is of secondary importance here.

yes ..

> > so i don't think this is really safe or even desirable in the file
> > managers (konq, dolphin), though it might be defensible in folderview
> > (while certainly adding more cpu cycles to various actions :)
>
> In folderview it does make sense, but perhaps there is an easier
> middle ground. As the Desktop ioslave handles things the way you want
> when creating a custom menu - I tried setting a panel folderview to
> show desktop://path/to/menufolder but this didn't work (it displays

correct, desktop:/ doesn't work that way currently.

> It should be a simple thing to code as well, the current desktop
> ioslave uses it's platform based code to determine where the desktop
> should be ~/Desktop on unix for example, we'd just give the user the

that path is customizable in system settings.

but before considering doing something to desktop:/, it might be good to back 
up a step and ask "what is actually trying to be achieved, and how can it be 
achieved with as much consistency as possible"

one of the tricks with application launchers is that they should probably go 
away when the application does, for instance. or if referring to a system 
application (versus a custom launcher), if the system application entry 
changes, that should be reflected in the user's launcher as well since it 
represents "that application" not really "that desktop file".

i'm not sure having files on disk is a good idea at all in those situations, 
but if they are on disk then they probably should be managed in a way to 
create a seamless experience.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Software


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