mc/gnome/gnome.TODO

New task list:

	- Add focus management to the tree

	- Options - "Show hidden files" needs to work for
  	  the tree as well as for the icon list.

	- Drop the MC event handling off for the main window.

	- Remote control of the file manager (corba client command).

	- Dynamic directory content loading.

	- Dynamic thumbnail generation

Other features requested:

	- Copy/Move/Delete operations on the treeview.

EXTENSIONS:

- Add special destkop entries ("Network neighborhood")

- In the find-file results, it would be nice if 'chdir' popped up a new
  panel instead of changing the directory of the present one (optionally).

- (Cool but low priority) it would be nice if 'Arrange icons'
  were configurable to allow stacking the icons along a particular edge
  OR if gmc could automatically find areas of free screen (i.e. no windows
  on them) and then place icons there.

Viewer:

- Toolbar
- Enable editor.
- Fix colors.
- Add cursor
- Debug monitor

Widgets:

- Push history
- Use Gnome File Entry where possible.

DND:

- Get sopwith to fix the random motion of his dnd icons.
- Check the purify stuff.

General Comments
----------------

 - needs documentation, context help, etc. Is anyone writing this?

 - the panel scrollbar is wierd - if you middle mouse click somewhere the
   thumb moves there, but if you then move the mouse (while holding
   middle button down) up and down, the thumb doesn't follow the mouse.
   However, if you middle click and drag on the thumb, it does follow.
   I think the thumb should follow in both cases. This is a gtk comment
   I'm sure.

Panel comments
---------------

 - The list headers dont seem to resize nicely - if I run gmc and try to 
   shrink the 'Name' column, it won't accept the new size and returns to
   the original size. If I resize the gmc window, then it seems to
   start working SOMETIMES. Sorry I can't come up with a better failure
   mode - just run gmc and see if you can resize the 'Name' column.

 - when the name column does resize, and its so small it clips the
   longer names, there should probably be an indication that the filename
   has been truncated. I think win95 puts a '...' at the end to let you
   know the string is truncated in that column. I think its a really nice
   touch, but not a complete show stopper.


 - the user needs some feedback that something is happening - for example,
   on  an ftp link, the cursor needs to change or a modal dialog popping
   up saying 'getting directory listing...' or something.

 - the pull-downs on the entry boxes under the floating menubar dont
   seem to do anything. I thought they might act as a history of the
   last few directories visited or something.

 - the internal viewer, in hex mode, seems to shove the ASCII side of the
   view (the rightmost column) off the side of the window.

 - internal viewer - search didnt seem to work in hex mode
 
 - internal viewer - search should hilight the matching text

 - I didnt get an error message when I tried to change the file modes
   on a file I didnt own.

Configure Options
-----------------

 - need some sort of help for all these options, they aren't too intuitive.
   We can't assume people are going to read the man page.

VFS Options
-----------

 - Passive ftp option?

 - it was nice to get feedback when grabbing a file via ftp - this sort
   of feedback while grabbing a ls listing from a ftp server would be
   cool.

NEW BUG LIST:

- Find file is pretty cool, but you might want to force-set a maximum size
  during the search (and then unset it after the search is done) to stop
  it from dancing around while it displays all the files that it's
  checking in that label below the GtkCList.
- Hidden directories don't have the right-mouse-button 'Start XTerm
  here'/'Make a tarball' menu options.

OPEN ISSUES:
- Also if you have multi-file selection, is there a way to get a popup
  menu of the operations that are applicable to all those files, instead
  of an empty one?

Havoc Pennington comments:

From hp@pobox.com  Mon Apr 27 14:41:01 1998
Return-Path: <hp@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 14:40:32 -0500 (CDT)
From: Havoc Pennington <hp@pobox.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
To: miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx
Subject: gmc wish list stuff
X-Mailer: VM 6.34 under Emacs 19.34.1


Hi Miguel,

I was playing with gmc and took some notes as ideas came to me. I also
tried to come up with an easier-to-use menu structure, that's at the
end.

I know a patch would be better but maybe some of these ideas are
useful. :) 

Havoc

=========================================

General:
===================

When I drag across the list view, it doesn't redraw underneath the drag.

Tooltips would be nice throughout

All the dialogs should be GnomeDialogs.

What if the "Filter" drop down had a "Pattern" option, which caused the
text entry to appear? As it is, some frightening patterns can appear
in that text entry; maybe better off hidden unless the user chooses
"Pattern"?
*.(awk|sed|lex|l|y|sh|idl|pl|py|am|in|f|el|bas|pas|java|sl|p|m4|tcl|pov) 
is a good way to scare the newbies. :)

Maybe it'd work like this: when "Pattern" is chosen, you see the text
entry with contents based on the last active filter; otherwise a label
with the English name of the filter, e.g. "Image files." That way
there's constant feedback on what's being viewed.

Apparent bug related to this, I have two panels open, and in one of
them choosing a filter from the dropdown doesn't put anything in the
entry.

It would be neat if a description of the highlighted menu item
appeared in the status bar. I'd like to see that as a GnomeApp feature.

Another neat thing would be info on the selected file in the status
bar; e.g. the file type, or eventually files might have comments
stored in meta-info.

I like the idea of hints in the status bar, but many of them don't
seem to apply to the Gnome version of mc.

Could some of the more confusing menu items (e.g. any that require
shell patterns or typing in commands) be moved to an "Advanced" menu?
Or just made optional?

Lots of the dialogs have funny looking capital letters to mark
accelerators; should use underlines or something instead.

Throughout, when asking for a filename (e.g. on copy or move) there
should be a "browse" button to pop up a file selection dialog.

File menu:
===============

"Open Terminal" fails silently because rxvt is in the wrong place;
Should pop up a dialog asking where it is.

"Mkdir" should be called "New Directory."

"Rename/Move" should be separate menu items; Rename should result in a 
much simpler dialog.

Maybe call "Select" "Select by Pattern..."? Makes it less surprising when
the dialog comes up.

I'm thinking all the "Select" stuff belongs on an "Edit" menu.

History doesn't seem to work in many of the GnomeEntry widgets?

The move, rename, etc. stuff should be on the Commands menu, maybe?

Panel menu:
===============

Call it the "Window" menu?

"Display Mode" seems confusing; how about "Detail Level"?

Dialog is called "Listing Mode," menu item "Display Mode." Should be
consistent.

It isn't clear what full, brief, long file list means; the stuff in
the entries is cryptic; what's "user mini status"? I think a submenu
would be more appropriate here, something like:

Detail Level -> Most
                Normal
                Least

Then put the more advanced options in a page of a global
"Preferences..." dialog.

"Sort Order" could be "Sort By" instead, and again a submenu might be
nicer than a dialog. 

e.g. Sort By -> Name
                Date/Time
                Size

etc. That way you can rapidly go up to the menu and change it, skipping the 
dialog.

I think the drop-down filter menu and entry are adequate; no reason to have a
"Filter" menu item here too. Just adds clutter.

"Network Link" says "F1 for details" but F1 does nothing when I press it.

Commands menu:
=================

"Find" should be "Find file"?
The Find dialog could be a lot nicer. It should also be a separate find-files
app or a gnome-libs widget, I think. Other apps might want to use it.

"Hotlist" should be "Bookmarks"? More familiar name. Consistent with
Help Browser. Also, where do the bookmarks show up? Should they be on
a submenu here? Should be consistent with whatever the Help browser
does.

"Compare panels" and "External panelize" need renaming. It's very
unclear what they do. See my reworked menu structure below for an 
idea on "compare panels" using a submenu.

Maybe "External Panelize" can be configured elsewhere, and then the 
menu can have a submenu with only the preconfigured options?

"Active VFS list"? What does it do?

It isn't clear to me what the "Commands" have in common. Seems like
most of them belong on the "Panel" menu, or in preferences.

Options menu:
================

Maybe this menu could be removed, and all of its dialogs made into
pages of a single notebook found under "Preferences..." on the File or
Edit menu (whatever the Gnome standard is).

Failing that, it should be called "Preferences" rather than "Options."

Desktop menu:
=================

It would make sense to me if this menu were next to the "Panel"
("Window") menu, since the two are related by opposition. I'd say
these two should be the last two items (except Help).

Help menu: 
=============

Should be right justified. Maybe a "Gnome Help" option to lauch the
browser pointed at the main Gnome Help Index?

Popup context menu:
==============

"Open With" could have a submenu with suggested applications to use.

There isn't a clear difference between the submenu specific to the
filename, and the main menu. e.g., why are link and symlink on the
submenu, but copy is on the main menu?

Link and symlink seem like Advanced items to me, but a "Create Link"
item that made a .desktop file (or whatever gets decided on for
meta-info) would be nice.

Menus Revisited
===============

Here's an attempt to work out a complete menu structure from
scratch. It changes things more radically than the above suggestions.
Items are listed in order.

File ->
	New Window
 	Open Terminal
	-------------
	New ->
		Directory
		Text File
		Image
		[ ... etc., user configurable. ]
	-------------
	Close This Window
	Exit File Manager

Edit ->	[Should be consistent with other Gnome apps, right now there's no 
	 standard I don't think?]
	Select By Pattern  [ An optional "advanced" item ]
	Select All
	Unselect all
	Reverse Selection
	----------------
	File Properties...
	----------------
	Preferences...          [ gmc big prefs notebook, maybe on File menu? ]

Commands -> [ This menu has commands that apply to selected files ]
	Open
	Open With ->
		[ Options that make sense for selected file ]
		Custom...     [ pops up text entry for command ]
	View
	View Raw [ An "advanced" command, optionally
	 	   not visible ]
	----------
	Copy...      [ Copy, move, rename would have simplified dialogs -
	Move...        just ask where to, use the selection rather 
	Rename...      than asking for a pattern ]
	Delete
	----------      [ These two should be optional "advanced" items ]
	Move by Pattern... [ The more complex dialog asking for a pattern ]
	Copy by Pattern... [ ditto ]
			

Window ->
	Find Files...
	Detail Level -> Most
			Normal
			Least
			[... etc. make this menu configurable?]
	Sort By      -> Name
			Date/Time
			[... etc. make this menu configurable?]
	Rescan Directory
	-------------------
	Scan FTP Directory...
	Scan Network Directory...
	-------------------				
	Special Listing -> 	SUID Root 
				Patching Rejects
				[... etc., whatever user has configured.]
	------------------
	Compare To -> 
		 	[ Menu item for each other window ]

Desktop ->
	Arrange Icons
	Properties...   [ launch desktop-properties app ]
	[More to come, I'm sure.]

Help ->
	About...	
	File Manager Manual
	Gnome Help

Popup menu for file foo.bar ->
	[ Quick shortcuts should be first; e.g. "Use as Wallpaper", etc. ]
	-------------
	foo.bar ->
		[ Everything on the "Commands" menu ]
	Properties...


Rationale:

File menu has the traditional stuff. Close, Exit, and New.
Edit menu has the standard Gnome edit menu stuff, when that's decided on.
  (Preferences... is in either File or Edit, whatever becomes standard).
  Has "File Properties..." because that seems consistent with e.g. gtt.
Commands menu has operations on the selected (pre-existing) file.
 Would also make sense to have "Edit Properties..." here instead of 
 "File Properties..." on the edit menu. 
Window menu has operations that potentially change what's in the window or
 how it's viewed.
Desktop menu has operations on the desktop.
Help menu has help.

The "Options" menu isn't needed, because it's all in "Preferences..."

Popup menu has the "Commands" menu as submenu of the file name; seems
intuitive, because "Commands" are operations on the particular file
name. Quick context-sensitive commands like "Use As Wallpaper" are 
first because they'll be used most. "Properties..." is also there, since
it may be more convenient here than on the "Edit" menu.


Preferences...
===============

The Preferences dialog would have the following tabs:

General: general options, from current Options->Options
Virtual File System: from Options->Virtual FS [advanced config]
Confirmation: from Options->Confirmation
New Menu: what to put on the File->New submenu
Detail Level: listing mode config, including what goes on Window->Detail Level
Sort By: config for the Window->Sort By menu
Bookmarks: config for bookmarks
File Types: config available actions for different file types. Much like
            the Netscape preferences for this. [advanced config]

Probably I'm leaving something out. The "Advanced" tabs could be somehow
marked as advanced (e.g. as in Netscape), or hidden by default.