Polishing stuff - gnome-filesystem package

[Alexander Larsson]

On Sun, 2007-02-18 at 12:09 -0500, David Zeuthen wrote:
> 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

Ugh, this old thread...

>  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
>       ..

How do you update this file as new translations are added? How do you
support users renaming or moving the directory? How do you explain to
people that the folders display differently in some apps (terminal,
non-gtk apps, etc)? 

Even inside gnome things will be strange, filenames will
be /home/alex/Pictures/cats, but it will display as
[home][alex][Bilder][cats] in the pathbar. I know we try to avoid
showing paths as much as possible in gnome, but we're far from
succeeding in all places.

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

Not possible currently.

> 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. 

I'm currently of the opinion that we should use localized filenames on
disk, and instead have a mapping from "well known location" (such as
desktop, music dir, photos dir, etc). This means we get consistent
naming in *all* apps, including the terminal, and it allows users to
move these locations where they want them (including in subdirs or
hidden dirs if wanted). 

Now, I've changed opinion on this during the years, so I might be
convinced to change my mind again, but its hardly done by calling other
opinions crack. Its far from a clear cut decision. 

Each side has advantages and disadvantages. I'm on the localized
filenames side because its the only one that can produce an internally
consistent translated ui (*all* of the ui, not just cherry picking some
parts of it) on a localized desktop.

> 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 :-)

I really dislike this handwaving of "upstream" not doing anything.
Upstream is not some mythical person. *WE* are upstream (such a change
would be in glib/gtk/gnome-vfs/nautilus which is mostly maintained by
redhat). If upstream failed to do something it is a failure on *our*
part. I've myself spent quite some time on this the last time it came
up. But at the end I decided to not solve it, not because upstream can't
decide, but because i had a billion other things to do and not enough
time to do all of them.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl at redhat.com    alla at lysator.liu.se 
He's a sword-wielding chivalrous cat burglar on a search for his missing 
sister. She's a plucky hip-hop archaeologist from out of town. They fight 
crime!