[dolphin] [Bug 465016] Dolphin started treating files/folders with hidden property set in NTFS files the same as any Linux hidden file/folder

[Felix Ernst]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=465016

--- Comment #5 from Felix Ernst <felixernst at kde.org> ---
>What's the normal or expected behavior in Linux for a file to be hidden?
>A hidden file in Linux has to be a Dotfile.

Actually, there is a secondary way to hide files. One can create a text file
named ".hidden" in a directory and put the name of a file of that same
directory on a line in the file and it will be hidden. The name of the file
doesn't need to start with a dot for this:
https://superuser.com/questions/826194/how-to-tell-dolphin-which-files-to-hide,
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=396659

>Would you expect a file to be hidden in Windows if its name begins
>with a dot but the file is not marked hidden?

I agree with this point. On Windows I wouldn't expect files starting with a dot
to be hidden. However, if I were to open a linux file system from Windows, I
wouldn't be as surprised if files starting with a dot were to be hidden.

>I think this behavior breaks the "Principle of Least Astonishment" from a Linux perspective.

That makes some sense to me. On the other hand, when I use a file system from
Windows and then use it from Linux the next day, I think I would appreciate the
most if the data would look the same. Files being hidden from one side and not
from the other seems confusing to me.

>What I didn't have into consideration is that Dolphin can be run in Windwos as well.
>But, why not use a differentiated bahavior depending on the installed OS?

I am not opposed to that in general. It just seemed weird to me at first.

>Why should Dolphin behave differently than a terminal in Linux?

Well – like I said – it already does because of the .hidden file. Another
reason is that terminals have a different target user group than Dolphin. For
Dolphin we are interested in usability by computer-illiterate people if
possible. Terminal applications generally don't really strive to be usable by
everyone. They would e.g. need an explanation about what should be typed there
for that.

All that being said, I am not fully convinced by your suggestion yet. I will
however leave this open, and if someone feels strongly enough about this that
they want to put the energy into implementing this, I won't really oppose it. I
wouldn't be surprised though if in response to such a change we would get bug
reports asking for a revert i.e. "hidden files on NTFS aren't hidden in Dolphin
anymore!" and then I wouldn't know what to do. ^^'

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