Re: GWorkspace changes - Inspector

[Stefan Urbanek]

Hi,

I'm moving this on the list for open discussion...

On 2004-03-10 19:26:15 +0100 Enrico Sersale <enrico@imago.ro> wrote:

> On 2004-03-10 18:57:29 +0200 Stefan Urbanek <stefan@agentfarms.net> wrote:
>
> > Hi Enrico,
> >
> > While using GW I have few comments about the new changes.
> >
> > 1. The inspector panel does not hide, when GW app is deactivated (because 
> > Inspector is a separate app). It is taking place on the screen.
>
> This is true, but this behaviour is because Inspector.app will be used also 
> by Desktop.app (the actual desktop window) and by Finder.app. And it could be 
> used by other applications, too. Inspector has methods to display file or 
> data contents; -setPaths:, -canDisplayDataOfType: and -showData:ofType: can 
> be used by any application trought DO. Moreover, there are two methods, 
> -addExternalViewerWithBundleData: and -addExternalViewerWithBundlePath: that 
> allow an other application to add its own content viewers. Inspector can also 
> save these external viewers and reopen them the next time it is launched.
> What do you think about adding a preference to hide Inspector when GW is 
> deactivated? (GWorkspace, in -applicationWillHide:, could ask Inspector to 
> hide itself, too).

Surely there needs to be a mechanism for hiding the inspector when no GW-suite application is 
activated. "Do not show it, when it is not needed". Moreover, the inspector should not 
show menu at all. If clicked, it should activate an application that is displaying information in 
it (GW). I would suggest to add kind of "inspector owner" concept.

> > 2. Inspector is computing size of a selected folder automatically - this is 
> > taking CPU resources and turning HD while it is not wanted. Would it be 
> > possible to readd the 'compute size' button? that would be great.
>
> I've not put a "compute size" button because the computing runs in a separate 
> thread that should exit immediatly when you select an other path. An example 
> due of my bad English: if I select /usr, this action will start a very heavy 
> thread but, if after this I click on /usr/bin, the first thread will exit. 
> The idea is that, if the user stops browsing on a certain directory, this 
> means that he is interested in *that* directory; and so there is time also to 
> compute the size...
> Well, I've tested this only on my box, that now, after years of work on 
> 350MGz machines, is a 2,4GHz pentium :-). Which is, exactly, your problem? 
> The threads don't exit or all this stuff is too slow? In this case I'll put 
> back the "calculate" button. No problem :-)

It is a problem. Imagine you are doing some HD or CPU intensive operations and 
you want to browse your filesystem. Laziness is an advantage here :-) I would 
suggest not to do anything that is not requested.

> An other question: does the image viewer work well for you? Also in this case 
> the image is created in an other thread that should terminate when the 
> selection changes.

It works fine, however, some images are broken. But that might be -gui problem.

> > 3. I think that permissions should be put back into a separate inspector 
> > view, as it was before. (moreover think about possible different 
> > permissions on different hosting environments)
>
> Ok, I'll put it back.

That would be great. I think the main file inspector should not show too much 
different information about the file. Just basic facts.

> > p.s.: can we open a discussion on discuss-gnustep about this?
>
> Sure :-)

Here it is :-)

What others think?

Best regards.

Stefan
--
http://stefan.agentfarms.net

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you 
win.
- Mahatma Gandhi