CommandLineDisintegration

Revision 13 as of 2005-06-09 06:11:55

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CommandLineDisintegration

Status

Introduction

Command Line Disintegration – command line should not be required by the average user – scary for users – likened to DOS – old days.

Identify common tasks which require command line access, and propose changes to avoid this necessity.

Rationale

It's absolutely scary to users, they are overwhelmed and feel intimidated by the terminal. It feels like "fiddling around", like being an "administrator", "system operator".

Scope and Use Cases

  • Martin wants to rotate some of is pictures within reach of one click and create thumbnails for them.

  • SebastienBacher wants to convert his .ogg files to .mp3 files, since his MP3 player refuses to play .ogg files - somebody told him to use the "terminal" for it.

  • Anthony wants to make a playlist from some of his .mp3s, but doesn't know how.

Posible solution Plan

Instead of trying to rewrite most CLI tools it is possible to write a simple tool that is able to present options that could be used in a CLI tool in an easy to understand GUI. You will lose some of the piping capabilties that can be handled by writing to file or clipboard.

Given the support for options build into CLI and GNU system the GUI can be build from this information or alternativelly from a template system.

Handling of output can be done with simple parser to different standardize format.

Implementation Plan

1. implement engine that takes option description(xml) of particular CLI tool and creates dialog to fill all parameters. There should be button to choose file|directory|file_list . Option can by one of boolean, string, enum(listed in xml description)

2. impement tool that takes command line descrioption from particular CLI tool using its help page or so ... may be create description editor.

Data Preservation and Migration

Packages Affected

User Interface Requirements

Outstanding Issues

UDU BOF Agenda

  • Current bluetooth synchronization broken. The bluetooth phone manager applet looks deceptively like a nautilus window, but does not allow you to drag and drop pictures to your phone, for example. (See BluetoothSupport)

  • "Send to..." in nautilus is a bad idea.
  • Making multiple modifications to files at once?
  • The photo use case can be handled by a more robust and easy to use photo management application like f-spot. This handles exporting and resizing. It does not however, automatically resize the photos to something more sane when you choose the "send by email" function. It just adds the original sized photo to the evolution mail.
  • Detection of hdparm stuff might be wrong, computer seems slow, user needs to use hdparm to fix his hard drive. it should be part of the properties of the hard disk icon in nautilus
  • Connecting to VPN servers has no GUI equivalent.
  • xkill ... need a better way for users to kill errant applications. GSM doesn't always kill an application and the "Force Quit" dialog sometimes takes a considerable amount of time to come up. Keyboard shortcut?
  • GUI Services management tool.
  • More integration with sudo and nautilus?
  • No way of getting to existing windows drives without going to /etc/fstab. (Another BOF)
  • Filesystem maintenance? fsck every 30 times? Single user mode type in root user password?

  • Systemwide preferences for GNOME. [http://www.gnome.org/projects/sabayon/]

  • GUI for mass renaming of files.

UDU Pre-Work