XDG Base Directory Spec

[Lars Hallberg]

Alexander Neundorf wrote:

>On Sunday 08 February 2004 20:53, Andrew Sobala wrote:
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>>On Sun, 2004-02-08 at 19:35, Lee Willis wrote:
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>...
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>>This has been hashed out on GNOME mailing lists before. The big problem
>>is that directory names aren't localisable, so promoting that as a
>>"standard" is a problem for users of different locales.
>>    
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>You mean translatable ? Mac OSX does this. Why shouldn't we...
>There is a set of directories which you don't see in the finder (all the unix 
>dirs like /bin, /usr, ...) and others which get translated names in finder.
>  
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As and old unix user, I'm a fan of the old short directory names - keep 
pathname sane!

For me, img is a good name for an images directory.

But it would probably be good to add attributes describing the 
filesystem. One short description and one long descripton.

Folder (directory) name: ~/whatever/img (not localized)
Short deskription: images (localized)
Long deskription: Default folder for downloaded/saved images. (localized)

The long deskription shold possably be a few sentens long. For stuff like:

dir: /sbin/
short desk: System programs
long desk: Esesial mantanans programs. Usaly only used by the sysadmin 
and the system itself.


dir: /usr/sbin/
short desk: Extra system programs
long desk: Extra system mantanans programs not esensial for keeping the 
system alive. Usaly only used by the sysadmin and the system itself.

Then UI cold use it like it want. I first draft fore a filebrowser might 
be (not much thinking has gon in to this):

A togelbutton shosing if pathname or short deskription shuld be shown.

In any case - the other is shown as tooltip.

Showing both + the long deskription on an info dialog You reach thru 
menus (both menubar and right-click menu).

Generaly I prefare guru UI ower wizard UI. An UI that not only helps 
user achive stuff - but to understand and lern stuff!

It's a smal tradoff. A wizard UI can prabably be slightly easier looking 
att first impression. But an guru UI is more empowering and leads to 
more pruductivity in relatevly short time.

It must not be overdone thou, a clutterd UI is newer good!

/LaH