On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 11:00 AM, John Gilmore <[email protected]> wrote: >> I'm very interested on this, as it would give us also for free a FUSE >> interface. Why I haven't pursued it yet is because the API for >> developing new gio backends is still private and our new backend would >> then need to live inside the gvfs gnome module or as a patch in every >> distro. Aside from having to periodically adapt to any API changes. >> >> See http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gvfs-list/2008-May/msg00004.html >> >> That said, such a backend would be very simple, for the journal in Sugar >> 0.84. > > Hi Tomeu, I'd say write the simple backend and submit it upstream. Their > interface sounds very much like every other interface in a computer, > i.e. not quite done right in retrospect and always subject to change. > Their mailing list only got a dozen messsages that month -- it's not > evolving SO fast. Host the code in their gnome module and then it'll > evolve along with the module and also go into each distro. > > My idea is that when an ordinary GUI program pops up an "Open File" > dialog, if an OLPC Journal exists for that user, it will be one of the > icons in the left column (like "Desktop" or "File System" or each > mounted removable storage device). If Journal is already the default, > or is selected, then the filename and type are pre-defaulted, though > the user can override them by typing. > > Even on a sugarized OLPC, people are going to neet to touch files that > have real names in the real filesystem (e.g. Python source code, > config files, even new firmware downloads) as well as Journal entries, > so they'll need ways to pick things OTHER than the Journal, too. > > This design would also let people try out the Journal concept, just by > "apt-get install olpc-journal" and starting it up. Then by picking > Journal in the file dialog or file browser, it will arrange the files > that they save or read, by date of access in one big glob, with tags > or whatever, rather than making them pick hierarchical names. This > would all happen modularly, without installing the Sugar GUI. (It > would only be interfaced to Sugar and Gnome, but maybe other desktops > would get the hint.) > > This would also be a really cheap way to browse USB keys, etc. Open > two Gnome file browsers (one hierarchical in USB key; the other in > Journal) and drag things back and forth. The code's already there, > it just lacks this one interface.
John, I don't know if you ever saw: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Journal,_reloaded Given the massive disruption to the status quo, I'm not sure that I would attempt to argue for one approach over the other; just noting that there is an alternative. --scott -- ( http://cscott.net/ ) _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
