Re: [ros-kernel] Re: ROS gui

[Royce M. I. <ro...@ev...>]

> Why should we clone explorer? If we use a free one or wite a free one, if
> the person doesn't like it could they just not download the newest
> explorer.

I think an Explorer clone should adhere closely to the "interface" of the
original, so newbies will be immediately familiar with it. Just because MS's
is insecure, doesn't mean ours has to be.

Here's an impartial feature/non-feature list for an explorer clone:

* keep quick-launch
* keep in-situ start menu editing
* remove start menu reordering ( should always alphabetize )
* remove "web view"
* keep desktop
* everything can be customized, and should be easy to do so ( no editing
text files - that's a Linux thing )
* it should be possible to edit settings in a text file - if you want to ( a
single, simple ini file - there are several reasons for this one if you want
me to expound )
* keep control panel
* xp-like start menu ( it really is a much better layout when you get rid of
the performance-sapping fancy graphics )
* xp-like user management ( ms finally got that right, if xp wasn't such a
flop )
* extension hiding should *not* be default for power users.
* file hiding should *not* be default for power users.
* no web-integration. web browser must be a separate app.
* There should *never* be any reason for the OS to open a file unless the
user has performed some action on the file, or on a program that uses the
file. ( This will eliminate some of the nastier security holes explorer has
been plagued by ).
* file associations could work MUCH better. It's always a pain setting up my
.c, .h, .cpp, .hpp, etc associations.
* there's no reason for explorer to access 20 registry entries every time
you double-click something. It should be blind to settings changes made
directly to it's config files/registry. All settings should be available
from within the program so that it's not necessary to edit the config
files/reg directly. At the very least it should re-read it's settings unless
it detects they have changed. ( Probably would have to be an ini file to
monitor for file changes ).
* 9x/NT4-like network neighborhood, unless someone can explain to me how the
2000/XP net hoods are better ( I have yet to find a good reason ). Note I'm
talking about browsing the network here, not configuring it.
* this isn't just for explorer... but there should be very little ( ideally
none ) images/animations included. They just slow the O/S down. If they are
necessary, then they should not be loaded until the first time they are
needed.

That's all I can think of right now.