Squeeze file properties window ideas (feedback requested)

[Christian Dywan]

Am Mon, 21 May 2007 00:17:19 +0200
schrieb "Stephan Arts" <stephan at xfce.org>:

> Hello,
> 
> I have been working on some ideas of implementing a file properties
> dialog in squeeze.
> One of these ideas involved using dbus to trigger thunar in viewing
> it's properties window.
> 
> But i encountered a little problem which involves the capability of
> the properties dialog being able to rename the file, obviously... bad
> things will happen.
> 
> Now, i have come-up with a number of possible solutions.
> 
> 1) Make it possible to set the properties dialog to 'read-only'
> 
> 2) Let the properties-dialog give feed-back (iirc, this is possible
> using d-bus) about any changes, this can result in weird errors
> though.
> 
> 3) Use fam to detect file changes (especially moves) and automatically
> adjust the filename internally.
> 
> 4) Implement a properties-dialog, at the risk of it not 'blending'
> into xfce nicely.
> 
> Personally, I would prefer 3, with a fall back to 4 when either thunar
> or fam can't be reached.
> 
> But, because I lack some experience on the matter, i would like to
> know how other devs would do this.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Stephan

In my opinion, option '4' is preferrable for two reasons:

1. One program re-using a second program's widgets is a popular source
of problems. Apart from a filemanager that could for example be the
panel using plugins.

2. Even if squeeze and Thunar both are meant to be the default choices
for their tasks, what if one likes to have a different file manager?

What about having Thunar's properties dialog as a seperate GTK+ widget
instead, so that consistency is kept?

Best regards,
    Christian Dywan