KIO Slaves proposal

[Dawit A.]

On Saturday 13 November 2004 11:40, Dik Takken wrote:
> After the recent discussion about a KIO Slave wizard, I have been thinking
> of other ways to make KIO slaves more accessible to the user.
>
> The idea is that we create a special KIO slave that allows the user to
> browse other KIO slaves, like some sort of virtual file system. To see
> what I mean, take a look at some screenshots:
>
> http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=17800
>
> Users no longer need to know or remember the names of the various KIO
> slaves (my girlfriend always forgets how to type a decent fish:// URL :-)
> ) , all they need to do is browse to the right icon and click on it. Even
> browsing remote computers using any available protocol (http, ftp, fish,
> ...) can be handled this way by asking the user for a hostname and select
> a protocol (see screenshot).
>
> If we really want to go User-Friendly (TM), this new locations index
> should become Konqueror's default location, replacing the current
> file://home/username location. Three disadvantages that I can think of:
>
> * Replacing file://home/username with locations:/ is a Really Big Change
> which we will probably need to wait for until KDE 4
>
> * The user's personal files will be one more click away. But so are many
> useful KIO slaves.
>
> * We might be tempted to turn this index into a jungle, like what
> happened to KDE Control Centre
>
>
> Opinions?

I actually like this idea. It has its own set of issues to deal with, but to 
me those seem minor compared to the suggestions/discussions we have 
had on this issue so far. Changing the default to "locations:/" in the 
file_management or any other profile should not be a big deal since the user 
can change that back to "file:/" if they so desire. The actual challange I 
see is keeping the interface managable. As more people attempt to add 
shortcuts to this interface, it is likely that this too might eventually 
become a jungle much like the control center thereby negating the reason it 
exists in the first place.

-- 
Regards,
Dawit A.
"Preach what you practice, practice what you preach"