Desktop drive icons improved

I have added lots of bells and whistles to the desktop drive icons, since their debut in Puppy 4.1apha2.

I responded to feedback and have added features accordingly. Originally, there was one icon per drive, but there were requests to have one icon per partition, also to have them mount and have ROX-Filer launch with one mouse-click on the icon. I have done this, while keeping the original configuration as an option. As well, I have added more features, such as mouse-over popup information and right-click menu.

The Event Management page has been updated:
http://puppylinux.com/technical/event-management.htm

Technical notes
Some brief technical notes about the implementation. The original technique had each desktop icon linked to a 'handler' script, for example, the icon labelled 'sda' had a handler /usr/local/bin/drive_sda. Dougal's HotPup uses a simple and effective system in which each icon is a direct link to the actual mount point, and this requires /etc/fstab to be setup correctly.

However, to incorporate all the features I wanted, I decided to go for a "rox directory" for each icon. It was fairly easy to modify my code so that each icon is a link to a directory, for example icon 'sda' (or say 'sda1' if icon is a partition) is connected to directory /root/.pup_event/drive_sda. This directory has 'AppRun' and 'AppInfo.xml' in it, and this supports the additional features of mouse-over and menu. 'AppRun' is a script that supports mutliple ways of handling a click on an icon.

I have extended the Event Manager GUI so that the desktop icons can be configured in a variety of ways to suit a user's requirement. For example, a user who has a large number of partitions would probably choose a single icon per drive.

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Comments

re Desktop drive icons improved


"MNTD"
Username: dogone
"Device handling is certainly much improved. I've only this thought. Dougal's use of gray and green dots to indicate mount status seems more elegant than UMNTD and MNTD and is language neutral. Could you employ gray, green and yellow dots in lieu of text? Color-blind users could be accommodated by use of a gray square, yellow triangle and green circle. This solution also conveys the importance of mount status without using the dreaded "M" word.

Re: "MNTD" text
Username: BarryK
"I mentioned somewhere earlier in this blog or forum, that the "MNTD" text could be replaced with something else. They are just images,and "MNTD" could easily be replaced with nice green and yellow 3D circles. Look in /usr/local/lib/X11/themes for all the desktop icons. A picture showing all icons in the "Original" theme is at: http://puppylinux.com/technical/themes.htm If anyone feels strongly that 3D balls are better than "MNTD" then go for it, create alternative icons and send them to me. You would need to do it for all the desktop icon themes.

Alternative icons
Username: dogone
"Barry, I've posted three example icons worth considering. At least they'll get the discussion started. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29933&start=45

Re: example icons
Username: BarryK
"here is dogone's link, with the bbcode to make it a real link: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29933&start=45

Tags: puppy