File managers (ROX Deficit)

[Benedikt Meurer]

edscott wilson garcia wrote:
>>>>For 1) I sometimes use the gnome-search-tool from Gnome (part of the "bits 
>>>>of gnome/gtk"). But usually, I just use "find" from the command line.
>>>
>>>>For 2) Rox is the only file manager I know (on Linux) that uses the file 
>>>>system extended attributes. You can attach a custom mime type to a file, 
>>>>if you wish, using an extended attribute. It also supports the file 
>>>>"magic" method.
>>>>
>>>>The xffm I find to be very slow.
>>>
>>>Actually, that's not xffm but the GtkTreeView widget that's slow.
>>
>>GtkTreeView itself is pretty fast. List/Treeviews in applications are 
>>usually slowed down by using unsuited renderers (e.g. 
>>GtkCellRendererText and GtkCellRendererPixbuf are ok for most cases, but 
>>atleast the latter is not necessarily the best choice for a 
>>list/treeview in a file manager, as the model must provide the whole 
>>icon, scaled to the proper size and combined with the emblems) and the 
>>use of generic data containers like GtkListStore or GtkTreeStore for 
>>large models.
> 
> Yes, probably specific cell renderers would help. You also have to keep
> an eye open to avoid inefficient default ways of the GtkTreeView, like
> sorting the treeview when each element is added instead of doing a
> single bulk sort, or rendering each row when added instead of loop
> rendering.

What I figured out for Thunar is that disconnecting the model from the 
treeview, rebuilding the model and connecting the model to the treeview 
is about the fastest way to change directories.

> Anyways, the xffm treeview is faster than the nautilus
> equivalent (showing everything), and Rox does not have a treeview, just
> a listview, so there is no comparison. 

ROXs listview isn't based on GtkTreeView, but its some custom hack, 
which lacks a11y support and it doesn't look right with most probably 
every existing theme, so its really not suitable for a comparison.

BTW: Slightly off-topic, I know, but the Xffm gridview doesn't properly 
display large folders (e.g. /usr/local/bin with >1000 entries here). If 
you scroll up/down, it doesn't redraw the whole view, but only parts, 
and you see fragments of no longer visible files.

greets,
Benedikt