[gcmd-dev] TODO

[Michael]

Some questions concerning the ideas described in the TODO file.

// General

* Splitting/merging files

What is splitting files ?? What was meant by merging ? I think merging 
configuration files is way beyond what a file manager should do, it's a highly 
complex task and mostly dependant on the question if the 'operating system 
community' would be able to define some standards. As for gnome-commander i'd 
say, forget it !

If merging other files was meant, then please can someone explain for what 
purpose ?


* Write configuration and bookmark changes immediately to file

It's a problem with severalö instances running, and would be more effectively 
solved if Tabs could be realized, because then there would be no need for 
several instances anymore.

* Optional deleting to .Thrash

wikipedia: "Thrash (computer science), where increasing resources are used to 
do a decreasing amount of work" aha.

  ???

Or maybe it's a typoo and you meant 'dot-thrush' here which is a kind of s 
pretty dotted singing bird...?

* Support for file meta tags (exif, iptc, icc, mp3, vorbis, *ml, pdf, video, 
...)

that's nearly solved isn't it ? I think the addendum " - custom columns" is 
mentioned below as separate point.

* Unmounting a device via device button

Solved ? 

* advrename & FAM: do not re-sort file list for every single renamed file

Solved ?

* Bookmark icons for ordinary folders in the device toolbar

There's my 'mount' hack but yes it's a dirty workaround

* User defined categories for grouping bookmarks

I actually lost what this was about. Virtual bookmark folders, like in firefox 
? Would be nice to include some little hint right in the TODO.

* Editing remote files

Where is that needed ? Hmm i'm working with NFS and Samba and at least there, 
AFAICS,  it works. Of course it depends on how the server is configured.

* Optional file deselection after completed action (copy, rename, ...)

And what's this good for ... ?

* More plugins:

I think we don't really need to tell the trivial ones, which anyway can be 
easily realized via context menu, so it's just not urgent.

like 
    - creating tarballs from selected files
    - compressing/decompressing (gz & bz2)
    - converting gz <-> bz2, tar.gz <-> tar.bz2
(all oneliners)
    - image operations (rotation, scaling, etc.) on selected files
(many backend tool available, like jpegtran or imagemagick)
    - converting txt <-> pdf 
(that's tools like pdftotext

    - batch file processing

i'm not sure what's meant here but it's always a good idea :)

    - other mc-like extensions ?

... but let's continue the plugin discussion in it's own thread, some day (or 
year) ...

* vfolders for selecting files from arbitrary URI
  (visible file selection can be merged internally to the vfolder at any point,
   and then the usual multiple file actions can be applied)

yea that's still a great idea

* Manageable queue for file transfers (pause/resume/cancel & rate limits)

indeed, that's state of the art today

* One instance mode

... is that = about Tabs ?



// Data presentation

* File names filtering

Solved by search ?

* Custom columns support

(this was mentioned above too)

* Brief file listing (see mc)

... or saving custom columns profiles  which can be switched by one-click on a 
drop down menu field ?

* Thumbnail listing mode

= image previews and mimetype icons ? I'm pretty unsure if that's the proper 
way gcmd, a 'text' style 2pane manager. It's the way of graphical filemanagers 
like nautilus, and already pretty much advanced there. Why would we even try to 
go there ? It's straightforward to stick with pure text, and core functionality 
instead of eye candy.


* Panel tabs for the file lists (Bugzilla request #392932)

Would that be solved by a general tabbed window too ?


// Search tool

all reasonable

// Advrename tool

... well you've done a lot of work here, Piotr, and indeed it's clearly one of 
the special powers of gcmd. I worked with Konqueror and Krusader, but in gcmd 
it's just more usable somehow.

// Internal viewer

There could be always done much to intview, but there seems to be no priority 
so far, and i agree with that. it's definitely good to have the inveiw, though. 
But anyway any internal viewer is exactly the border where a filemanager is 
leaving to be a file manager. With modern speed (disk and cpu) it's arguably 
more straightforward to embed special programs as viewers instead, anyway. I 
think more and more programs develop the embededing feature (like firefox-gecko 
or konqueror-khtml, or openoffice) and maybe things like gwenview or gimp may 
follow some day just by common gtk features.


// Documentation

* Help button for every dialog

This could be the little '?' of some apps which always gets redirected to the 
help for the feature that user 'activated' lastly. Anything else should be 
solved by (optional) balloon help, IMHO.


Discussed stuff
-----------------------------------------------

* Toolbar configuration - OO.org like
* Light version of gc (based on gtk+ only - not depending on GNOME)
* Even lighter version of gc (statically linked, based on FLTK http://fltk.org/)

I still think once this would be accomplished, it would allow to 'de-thrash' 
gcmd a lot, and instead of always fiddling with the gnome restrictions, focus 
on the real thing much more easily.

Well another thing we discussed was the 3d-Compiz, quadrophonia HD sound, 
language recognition, and face gestures sensitive alpha devel tree no ? Not to 
speak of the telepathic one, oops sorry i forgot it's top secret ..:!