[Panel-devel] The ALI: do we really need or want it?

[Reaching Farr]

The argument seems to boil down to this:

*There are a group of people who want to click on a file (that is 
somehow presented to them) and have an application launch to handle that 
file
*There is another group of people who want to launch an application that 
they will then use to pick the data to handle.

Both seem very reasonable.  As far as I can tell no one is saying that 
the other is a horrible idea.  In fact you can do BOTH in most current 
desktop environments.  If you double click on a .ogg file it tends to 
launch a media player that can play it.  Same with a .odt file and a 
.cpp file.  It seems to me that the first camp of people simply want the 
most *applicable* (or that which is most likely to be applicable) data 
presented in a better manner.

Currently you would have to go through an intermediate application 
(Konqueror) to select a file.  To me there seems to be only a few 
alternatives (please feel free to add your own):

*Have your file smack-dab on the desktop.  Very accessible from there.
*Have it on a sidebar.  Either the traditional one such as kicker, or a 
fancy bubbly one like the Apple launcher.  Perhaps even kinda like 
Quicksilver.
*Have your files in an applet/plasmoid.
*Have a special menu on a launcher that will display some *portion* of 
the total files on a system, in some ordered or random format.

First, whichever of these options you pick you will not be able to fit 
all the files.  At some point you will have to use an application of 
some sort to find the rest of them.  Second, except for the last option, 
all of these are already done, and the last one is could easily be 
implemented.

So if the question is "If you click on a file, should it reliably do 
something useful" (such as launch an application to handle it, or offer 
to install one that will) then the answer is a definitive Yes!  Should 
there be an easy way to access all of your files?  Yes again.  Might 
that include a menu on the launcher, an applet, files on the desktop or 
telepathic mind control with the user?  Only if they want it.

Solution: Provide (a) context-sensitive menu(s) for the user to use or 
not to use, along with something along the lines of a traditional menu 
that provides easy access to applications, all of which are user 
configurable.  Cause lets face it, no two users are the same.  Everyone 
is going to want something different.  Even if one way is better then 
the other isn't going to make people switch.  People still use Windows 
:-)  The best way would seem to be to have the two coexist, unless 
someone has invented something absolutely revolutionary and isn't 
telling us.

Regards,
Chris Wailes
Reaching Farr