[gcmd-dev] gcmd - where to start

[Michael]

Hello all,

There was some interest in picking up development of gcmd and i was asked to 
give some overview. I have to admit i don't know what to say, since i never was 
'into the code' and i'm not even using a real desktop environment (as for 
integration status -- also, i'm not in favor for too much integration anyway.). 
But i still tried to come up with some bits of information, however useful they 
may be.

The latest stable version was 1.2.8.15. Naturally, it lacks some features that 
already got implemented in the master branch 1.4. but as far as i remember, 
Piotr tried to backport anything sooner or later and i'm not sure which 
features those actually are. I remember him working on the renaming tool, the 
device icons, the file list updating, and of course doing some bug fixes.

Below, i'll append some useful links where you can lookup the status and where 
the activity was.

Not in proper order, but let me start with this instead. I went through the 
TODO file and extracted some high priority tasks, adding my personal comments:

--------------------------------------- ideas


* MIME configuration

There is no inbuilt access to modify the assigning of applications to document 
types, like in KDE Dolphin.
In the past, this was based on system defaults and user modifications stored in 
~/.usr/local/share/applications. This system is still in use, but was heavily 
modified and maybe extended since then. I am not up to date here; it would be 
wise to ask some KDE developer about how it works today. Implementation in KDE 
is like right click 'Open with' -> 'Other application' and then a checkbox 
'Make permanent'. There should be a way to type in a custom path.

* File list updating

This does not work correctly for me. Ideally, it would work independently of 
any desktop environment (see next task). Also, because of a bug in catching 
changed folder names, gcmd occasionally crashes.

* Get rid of the 'Folder root' system

When you click a device icon, the new path is set up as file system root (like 
in DOS). Maybe it's debatable, but i never seen any benefit in this, instead it 
makes the quick 'folder up' navigation impossible. The feature may be related 
to the crashes on folder renaming, too.

* Unmounting a device by clicking the device button

This is also a small feature which saves many nerves ...

* Cooperation with desktop environments

Especially any Gnome file monitoring daemons (do they still install FAM?) 
should be either integrated if available, or ignored in a smart way. Since i 
was always opting for making gcmd more independent of Gnome (in the long run 
meaning to change the name ;) i'd opt for the smart ignoring here. 

* Bookmark icons for ordinary folders in the device toolbar

Sounds silly, but is a real pro of gcmd because it's gonna heavily used. Easy 
to implement, just the same procedure as putting up a device icon, w/o the 
mounting part.

* File list view: Columns

The chosen length of the shown columns is not optimized and got lost by several 
actions. It's annyoing and should be fixed somehow. We talked about custom 
columns support, too, ideally also support for file meta tags (exif, iptc, icc, 
mp3, vorbis, *ml, pdf, video, ...)

* Advrename tool

 Support for safe rename conflicts (file01->file02, file02->file03, ...)
        - Minimal: Come up with a warning and the option to cancel
        - Ideal: Another option to resolve conflicts (like using internal 
temporary intermediate names)
 Renaming optionally working recursively on subfolders - would be great, but 
YMMV.


--------------------------------------- files

git repository:

        https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-commander

Several informative files are here:

        https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-commander/tree

Please look at these:

Firsthand information:          README.in
                        NEWS:           Bugfixes and new features for both 
branches (good for comparison)
           comitting to git:            README.comits
                        TODO:           Collected ideas / tasks for the future

Latest changes:

        https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-commander/log


--------------------------------------- bug fixes

First before all, the development branch should compile and run on a decent 
linux.

At the very least, it should compile and run on a Debian 'stable', but maybe 
rather go for 'testing' immediately.

* Update for using automake 1.14 (by now, only up to 1.13 seems to be supported)
* Update for latest version of libgettext (i needed to downgrade to debian 
stable for this)

By using 'ldd' (via the attached script) on the git binary of 2012 (the last 
one i installed in /usr/local/bin), i can see lots of .dev libraries which are 
not installed on my Debian 'testing', and even after downgrade to 'stable', i 
could not easily install them w/o conflicts, and anyway gave up for the sheer 
mass.

Other useful links:

Homepage                http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd
List archive            http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gcmd-devel

--

Thank you for trying to keep this up -- Michael

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