Re: Open/save dialogs that do not start in ~

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From: peter (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Open/save dialogs that do not start in ~
Date: 13:41 on 22 Jul 2004
> My home directory has everything. I have my own structure within my home
> directory, but it'd be great if things would just start their open/save
> dialogs right there. Certainly not in /, or a hidden directory anywhere.

I'm not sure that "~" is always the right choice, but it's probably the
best possible default and would sure beat the heck out of some random
directory under their installation directory. Best would be "the current
directory inherited from the parent", which would *usually* be ~ and if
it's not there's probably a good reason for it.

Ideally they'd remember the last directory you saved or loaded that
particular file from and use that.

What I hate are programs that do something weird with the current directory
for programs they run. For example, "trn" always changes to "~/News", so
instead of saving files in the directory you're working from they always go
there and you have to "^Zmv ~/News/whatever .; fg"

ROX Filer insists on going through the following shenanigans:

	You start out in some random directory.
	You're viewing directory "~/something/some name/"
	You double-click on some file.
	ROX looks up the handler for that file.
	ROX starts that handler... not in ITS directory, and not in the
		directory you were viewing, but in $HOME. And the file
		name it passes to the file may not be the one you expect if
		there are symlinks in the path. I don't remember if it
		forcibly expands symlinks or not, but it was weird.

The author refused to accept any patches to change this behaviour. He
often opens stuff in CDs and doesn't want to have to quit the program to
pop the CD out. He won't even accept a patch that makes it an option,
because he doesn't want to add any options he doesn't think people need,
because they're too confusing.

What I'm supposed to do is, FOR EACH HANDLER, create a script that figures
out what the directory is supposed to be based on the file names, cds there,
and pulls up the program once its there. This is less confusing. I guess.

This was the final straw that decided me on buying, upgrading, and
switching to a Mac. Metal finder pisses me off, but it doesn't piss me
off as much as the fact that there are precisely zero open source file
browsers that don't piss me off more.

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