[Patch] #29984 Change file permission using octal numbers

[Thiago Macieira]

Dominik Seichter wrote:
>> *) Most of them don't care to learn octal notation
>
>They don't need to, because they do not change permissions at all, like you
>stated above.

Even using the widget, they don't have to know what octal is. All they will 
see are numbers changing. And I believe most people that get interested by it 
will see the association between numbers and checkboxes: 2 for write, 1 for 
execute, etc.

And they won't have a problem unless they start writing random numbers in 
there, containing 8s, 9s or more than 4 digits.

>> *) Many of those the do know octal permissions (i.e. me) don't
>> particularly want to use it in the GUI
>
>You do not have to use them in the GUI. It is just another optional
>enhancement.

I was inclined to agree with Scott up there, but I've just thought of a 
situaion in which I'd gladly use the widget and permissions dialog: in case 
of remote operations, like FTP or fish. In those systems, which I'm accessing 
remotely, I can't just flip to my open konsole and change permissions -- it 
would involve logging in to a shell which might not even be available.

Another advantage is that typing or pasting a number is a few mouse clicks 
faster than checking and unchecking checkboxes.

Now, KDE isn't just for the newbies. I believe many experienced users would 
benefit from this feature.

>> *) The current dialog is already confusing
>
>It is confusing, but I do not think it gets more confusing because of the
> line edit.

Here I can't argue one way or another, but I'd just like to remind that we may 
have an ACL dialog coming through soon, so it might be a good idea to give 
the dialogs' design some thought.

For instance, users should be aware that changing permissions might reset ACLs 
(if that's the case).

-- 
  Thiago Macieira  -  Registered Linux user #65028
   thiagom at mail.com           
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