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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Improved document handling (Was: Goal-orientation (files vs documents))
From:       Waldo Bastian <bastian () suse ! de>
Date:       2000-03-03 15:59:27
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On Fri, 03 Mar 2000, Marko Samastur wrote:
> Waldo Bastian wrote:
> > I think the things which you describe are very feasible with KDE
> > 2.0. With DCOP we are able to transmit all the required information
> > to a document-tracking daemon. I believe there is already someone
> > working on something like this. (Offering a global recently opened
> > files list)
>
> Nice to hear that :) Do you by any chance know who is working on it?

I believe it is Rik Hemsley (Rik are you listening? :-)

> I'd like to read more about DCOP as well, but I can't access
> developer.kde.org (connection refused).

If you have a recent source tree you can have a look at kdelibs/dcop 
(some docs) and kdelibs/kio/http/kcookiejar (an example of its usage) 
to get an idea. Basically it gives an application the possibility to 
transfer some information to another application, or to request 
something from another application.

E.g. kcookiejar stores http cookies. Whenever an io-slave makes a HTTP 
connection, the slave asks kcookiejar via DCOP if there are cookies 
which it should send along.

> > Another possibility would be to write a CVS-ioslave: this would
> > allow the user to load/store documents with complete revision
> > control using the standard file-dialog in all programs.
>
> Well, revision control should be hidden. It shouldn't be something
> extra users have to learn. I can't say if this goal is achievable for
> all revision control operations, but I'm certain that it is for most
> often used ones (like getting version of document at some point
> time).

I don't think you gain much by hiding things. I would find it offensive 
if my computer would keep all old versions of my documents around 
without letting me know that it does that. 

I see advantages in better integration of revsion control within KDE, 
but I think it should remain transparant to the user at all times.

A simple approach e.g could be to offer a hierarchical structure like 
this:

docs:/folder/Old versions/
docs:/folder/myfile.doc
docs:/folder/hisfile.doc
docs:/folder/bla.doc

Old versions would then contain:
docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/
docs:/folder/Old versions/hisfile.doc/
docs:/folder/Old versions/bla.doc/

And e.g. docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/
would look like:
docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/rev0.1
docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/rev0.2
docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/rev1.0
docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/rev1.1
docs:/folder/Old versions/myfile.doc/latest -> rev1.1

Cheers,
Waldo

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