integrated internet browser

[Chris Green]

On Thu, Aug 25, 2005 at 06:20:32PM +0100, James Tappin wrote:
> On Thursday 25 August 2005 18:07, Erik Harrison wrote:
> EH> Yeah, if the two things you do most are file browsing and web
> EH> browsing, and the most common thing you do is switch from your file
> EH> browser to a newly typed URL which isn't in your bookmarks in your
> EH> webbrowser, then this is a time saver.
> EH>
> EH> The issue is of course is that the UI should make it easy to switch
> EH> between the two (web browser/file browser) but they should be seperate
> EH> applications.
> EH>
> EH> Shoehorning the two together results in either konqui (which is
> EH> unusable) or Explorer (which changes it's entire UI depending on the
> EH> mode). And that's just from a UI perspective.
> EH>
> 
> I'd dispute the claim that konqui is unusable. IMHO the most useful facility 
> for combining web/file browsing is the ability to drag a web link into a file 
> manager to download it where you want (rather than having to faff about with 
> a download dialogue to get it in the right place). If xffm could accept files 
> from firefox in that way then I'd be happy.
> 
Yes, I have to admit this is one of the most annoying things about
Firefox et al.  You click on a link to a file and:-

    Up pops a completely redundant new window that does nothing.

    Up pops the "what do you want to do with this file" dialog box
    where you select where to put the file (this is the only relevant
    bit really).

    Up pops a 'download manager' box that tells you how the download
    is going, if it hasn't finished already.

    Then you have to clear up your screen by closing the download
    manager and the first redundant window.

It's all a right old pain, I could deal with just the the "what do you
want to do with this file" dialog box but the others are just a
nuisance.

The Win2k/XP way of making an FTP site appear as a network drive in
Explorer is a neat approach.

-- 
Chris Green (chris at areti.co.uk)

    "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."