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Sadfa

Member

Registered: 2021-03-27

Posts: 47

SYMLINKS: Right-click drag in Thunar to provide options?

Hi,

I'm back. Hope everyone who's making Xfce great is well.

There's an issue that has burned me a couple times now related to symlinks, when dragging symlinks into programs, many programs struggle to handle them.

1) Mousepad can't save an edited file, when one opens it using a symlink
2) Xfburn just loads the symlink so one ends up with a tiny file being burned to disk rather than the actual file.

There's likely other examples but that's two of them.

I'm wondering whether it's possible to create a little menu when a person drags the symlink file with the right-click button held. That is, when the right mouse button is released the user might get options to:

- Drop as symlink
- Drop as linked file
- Drop as linked file with symlink name

What might be the implications (btw the third option might be difficult to do, maybe just consider the other options?)?

Last edited by Sadfa (2021-08-10 11:00:52)

Tamaranch

Member

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 269

Re: SYMLINKS: Right-click drag in Thunar to provide options?

1) Mousepad can't save an edited file, when one opens it using a symlink

If you're talking about https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/mousepad/-/issues/135, it was a GLib issue, fixed in 2.68.3.

Last edited by Tamaranch (2021-08-10 11:01:23)

Sadfa

Member

Registered: 2021-03-27

Posts: 47

Re: SYMLINKS: Right-click drag in Thunar to provide options?

1) Mousepad can't save an edited file, when one opens it using a symlink

If you're talking about https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/mousepad/-/issues/135, it was a GLib issue, fixed in 2.68.3.

Nice! That's one down!

There are other examples that are equally if not more troublesome at times. It would be really nice to have a mini menu for these circumstances and to me at least right-click would be intuitive.

Tamaranch

Member

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 269

Re: SYMLINKS: Right-click drag in Thunar to provide options?

Superimposing the action of two mouse buttons is not obvious in general (see e.g. https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/mousepad/-/issues/144).

When it makes sense to distinguish the link from the file it points to, I think it's up to each application to handle it in its own way, either by an appropriate default behavior or by providing an option to adjust this behavior.

For Mousepad for example, I think the current drag and drop behavior is reasonable.

Last edited by Tamaranch (2021-08-10 11:38:51)

Sadfa

Member

Registered: 2021-03-27

Posts: 47

Re: SYMLINKS: Right-click drag in Thunar to provide options?

Superimposing the action of two mouse buttons is not obvious in general (see e.g. https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/mousepad/-/issues/144).

That issue seems to be referring to a different problem where the two mouse buttons are held down at the same time and producing unpredictable results. What I'm wondering is if we completely disregard the left mouse button and click-drag only using the right. There is already a precedent for this in Xfce (and Windows too), where a similar right-drag menu asks the user whether they wanted to Copy Move or create a Link. Its fairly useful.

When it makes sense to distinguish the link from the file it points to, I think it's up to each application to handle it in its own way, either by an appropriate default behavior or by providing an option to adjust this behavior.

You may be right, but what my proposal does do is make Thunar more powerful at no cost.

I would open a feature request at the Gitlab (for Thunar and for Xfburn, which I believe ought to, by default, use the name of the symlink and the file that is linked to). Unfortunately as expressed to ToZ in the past, the last times that I tried to signup, Gitlab refused to email me the confirmation code. If you're adamant that Thunar shouldn't do this though, I won't push further.

Last edited by Sadfa (2021-08-12 13:43:11)

Tamaranch

Member

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 269

Re: SYMLINKS: Right-click drag in Thunar to provide options?

What I'm wondering is if we completely disregard the left mouse button and click-drag only using the right.

Oh right, I didn't quite understand that

Unfortunately as expressed to ToZ in the past, the last times that I tried to signup, Gitlab refused to email me the confirmation code.

Sometimes there are occasional problems with Gitlab, have you tried again since? Or maybe with another address?

If you're adamant that Thunar shouldn't do this though, I won't push further.

No, I was only speaking for Mousepad, of which I am a maintainer, and as said above, I didn't understand your request well.
So for the rest, especially Thunar (more actively maintained than Xfburn I think), feel free to open a new issue.

Last edited by Tamaranch (2021-08-12 14:16:01)