New Version of Xfce4PanelMenu released

[Marc Schwartz]

Marc Schwartz wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 06:36 +0100, Radoslaw Pociecha wrote: 

>>>4. In the file browser, the "Recent files" option does not seem to 
>>>pick up the entries in ~/.recently-used. Is the list supposed to pick 
>>>up the entries in that file or do they come from elsewhere?
>>>
>>
>>it takes files from its own recentfiles.xml
> 
> 
> FWIW, if I am reading correctly, the freedesktop.org standard for
> recently used files specifies using "~/.recently-used":
> 
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/recent-file-spec/recent-file-
> spec-0.2.html
> 
> The advantage here is that many GNOME and KDE apps use this approach,
> which would standardize the mechanism.
> 
> 
>>>5. Also in the file browser, might it be possible to enable/disable 
>>>the display of the MIME types?
>>>
>>
>>good sugestion, I will add it in next release.

Radoslaw,

A couple of additional comments:

1. As I have used the applet more today, it seems to me that the file 
browser functionality (at least at this point) is heading in a direction 
to be redundant to that which is provided by applications such as xffm, 
Rox and Nautilus to name perhaps the more popular ones used with Xfce 
(maybe with the addition of Konqueror).

I happen to use Rox.

I wonder if it might make sense, depending upon where you are headed 
with the file browser, to have an option to use your functionality or to 
be able to specify an alternate FM by its command? That would provide 
folks with the opportunity to use a FM of choice and to take advantage 
of (for example) the association between MIME types and applications. At 
this point, if I double click on a file in your browser, it prompts me 
for the application to use. If I could use Rox, I have already taken the 
time to make the associations and so would not have the extra step.



2. A related comment with respect to the recently used files list. At 
the moment, it is several clicks away by having it embedded in the file 
browser. I wonder if it could be separated and have its own menu list, 
perhaps under the current Applications menu in the left hand column. 
That would make it more readily accessible and therefore usable.

In addition, it is my understanding that the process by which MIME types 
and applications are associated is to an extent in a state of flux and 
that the freedesktop.org folks are "working on it". Obviously not all 
FM's are FDT.org compliant yet so a "universal" approach may not be 
available.

One option to consider might be to allow the user to specify a command 
to be used when clicking on (or selecting) a file in the recently used 
list or menu. If for example, one specifies 'rox', the existing 
associations would seem to open the file with the proper application, 
without further prompting. I tried this with several different MIME 
types and it seems to work well. Thus using 'rox' + FileName opens the 
file with the proper application as per the associations.

I am not sure how widely applicable this approach is or if there is a 
better means of utilizing MIME/Application associations at this point. I 
think that xffm uses its own approach to this.

If the command is left blank, then the user is prompted for the 
application to use as you do now.



3. If I specify that the Applications menu in the left hand column 
should use the default Xfce desktop menu and the latter uses the 
"System" menu, your Applications menu does not seem to pick up the 
System Menu part, only the contents above that in the default Xfce 
menu.xml file.



Anyway, my thoughts for the evening. I really like the menu and hope 
that you find these comments constructive.

HTH,

Marc