Polishing stuff - gnome-filesystem package

[David Zeuthen]

Hi,

Given the F7 schedule was pushed back one month I thought perhaps we
could spend this time on polishing stuff.

It looks like gnome-screensaver already drops a directory Pictures
in /etc/skel/Pictures [1] to ensure that the user gets the directory
~/Pictures. Personally, I'm a big fan of having pre-made directories in
a new users home directory. Mostly because it allows us to patch our
applications so they open the file chooser in the right directory. 

I think we ought to do more of this. I also think we ought to formalize
a bit. 

So someone last week brought forward the idea of a gnome-filesystem
package that put files in /etc/skel. This package would provide

 /etc/skel/Documents
           Downloads
           Music
           Pictures
           Public

plus perhaps a few others.

This brings back the good old discussion of whether we should use
localized names; e.g. if the users preferred locale is, say, Danish then
perhaps the user perhaps would expect

 ~/Dokumenter
   Hentede Filer
   Musik
   Billeder
   Delte Filer

Well, 

 - fact of the matter is that many programs today already hardcode paths
   like ~/Pictures (gnome-screensaver, f-spot at least [2]) and ~/Music
   (banshee at least; possibly Rhythmbox too).

 - We've already have a precedent with ~/Desktop and, ugh, it shows in
   Nautilus as "Desktop" in a danish locale, not "Skrivebord" as I
   would assume. That's a bug we *could* address; see item 3. below.

 - It's could be considered a bug that gnome-usershare don't make sure
   that a ~/Public directory is created via e.g. /etc/skel (same thing
   as Ray fixed for gnome-screensaver). At least I consider this a bug.

So, call to action

 1. Someone create a gnome-filesystem package that populate /etc/skel.
    Include some docs with instructions on what this is, why etc. etc.
    Make sure it's evident how it should be used; e.g. what are the
    naming conventions for where I should save my files if I'm a
    Bittorrent client (perhaps in ~/Downloads/MyAppName) etc. etc.

    Make sure this package is mentioned in the Fedora packaging guide
    lines. Make it clear that requests for new top-level directories
    in $HOME can be applied for via the normal bugzilla process.

    (we could even call it desktop-filesystem if the KDE people agree
     this is a good idea. But I'm unsure how KDE works (Rex?) and we
     can always rename the package later.)
    
 2. File bugs against relevant packages to 
    - Require the gnome-filesystem package instead of dropping it's own
      directories into /etc/skel
    - Use the appropriate directory (e.g. Pictures instead of Photos or
      vice versa) in the app
    - Make sure the app defaults to the correct directory for usage;
      e.g. Firefox should do all downloads to ~/Downloads if that's
      what the gnome-filesystem package prescribes (or would that
      violate "branding"? [4]); make sure f-spot uses ~/Pictures etc.

 3. Talk alexl into putting a feature into Nautilus / gnome-vfs so it
    can read a .localization file (much like it reads a .hidden file,
    see [3]) such that the gnome-filesystem package can drop a file
    /etc/skel/.localization that e.g. looks like this (or whatever
    format, preferable interoperable with other desktops etc. etc.

      [dir Desktop]
      Name[da]=Skrivebord
      Name[de]=Schreibtisch
      ..

      [dir Pictures]
      Name[da]=Billeder
      Name[de]=Abbildungen
      ..

  4. If it's possible to put emblems on the files in gnome-filesystem
     we could do that too. Alex?

The work for doing this, perhaps except 3. (but I doubt it's much work
either), is a no-brainer (unless you insist on name-on-disk-should-
be-localized-crack but that should be rebutted above) that will make our
desktop look more polished. 

We should just do this. Or we could just do what we normally do - sit
here and wait for upstream to make a decision. I doubt that will happen
for the next 2-3 years given the latest exchange of flames on d-d-l. So,
in some sense, I'm taking the flamewar here :-)

Thanks,
David

[1] : See

 http://cvs.fedora.redhat.com/viewcvs/devel/gnome-screensaver/gnome-screensaver.spec?r1=1.134&r2=1.135

[2] : Actually f-spot requires ~/Photos, even in a danish locale, and
gives you an ugly modal dialog error message if it doesn't exist. But
either gnome-screensaver and/or f-spot is patchable :-)

[3] : See

 http://curtis.hovey.name/2007/02/16/localizing-standard-directories-or-nautilus-hidden-hacks/

[4] : If it violates Firefox branding rules to change the default
download directory... then it's probably a sign that we should probably
switch the default browser in the GNOME desktop away from Firefox. Of
course this is my own opinion....