Remember custom positions of deleted desktop items until next session

[agaida]

and how to mess it up

Fine:

https://youtu.be/5o3NTqWHuMo

Not so fine:

https://youtu.be/Blcvjk_1J_A

[tsujan]

I don't see a bug here.

(1) If you mean those shortcuts can be moved to Trash, yes, they can but they will be recreated when pcmanfm-qt starts again.

(2) If you mean those backslashes inside Trash, that's a mystery and, as you know, it doesn't happen here.

(3) But if you mean the the positions aren't preserved after deleting, that happens with all Desktop icons. We remove custom positions after files are deleted from Desktop (in DesktopWindow::onRowsAboutToBeRemoved) because if we didn't, we would have to answer these questions: (1) How many deleted positions should we remember? (3) When should we forget those virtual positions? (3) What if a real file is put in one of those positions? Should we still preserve the position in case the deleted file is restored?. In short, remembering the positions of deleted files would create complications.

The real question is why the positions are remembered in your "good" video. I should think about it (although I think I knew that answer before).

[agaida]

hmm - i would expect maybe that pcmanfm-qt would accept that i deleted the icons for a reason and reflect it in the settings - really, as a windows- or kde- or $somewhat-user i would do :P

Edit: But i'm fine with that behaviour - but we should expect the same "bug" will come up several times.

[tsujan]

i would expect maybe the the the pcmanfm-qt would accept that i deleted the icons for a reason and reflect it in the settings

"Reason" is a human concept; fortunately, scientists haven't succeeded in reducing it to 0 and 1 :D

We should either forget about deleted positions (as is done currently) or remember all of them and forget them only on exiting or better, on starting. The latter is quite possible and I'll experiment with it. Good idea!

But let me first see why those damn positions aren't forgotten in your "good" video. I'm sure I knew it...

[tsujan]

I reopened it because it contained a feature that may be implemented.

[agaida]

kwin? upps, using xfwm4 right now

[tsujan]

kwin?

?

[tsujan]

This is one of those features that seem simple but their implementation may not be so easy or simple.

[agaida]

Idea: start with the simple things we might need before the release

Edit: just stumbled over - relative icon positions, short video follow

[tsujan]

I can't do anything with deadlines ;) One of my personality flaws.

[agaida]

https://youtu.be/I6KjuJkb9gc - i guess it is a regression

[tsujan]

i guess it is a regression

No it isn't. With DND, items are put from top to bottom and only then, from left to right. It's like you drop those files from somewhere else onto Desktop.

I didn't find a way to know how files were arranged before DND on Desktop. Moreover, they could be arranged randomly before DND.

[tsujan]

Please open a feature request for that! But first, you'll have to find an understandable title for it.

[tsujan]

OK, update:

It's very easy to remember "dead positions", so that if the file is restored, it'll be put in its previous position. All dead positions should be removed when or before the next session starts (we can't have dead positions forever). However, if cleaning is done at startup, there will be a considerable delay (a long delay if the previous session was continued for weeks and many sticky files were deleted -- I checked with 100 files and saw a delay) and we don't want that. The same could happen at the session end; the delay could be annoying.

I checked KDE; it doesn't have this property: custom positions aren't remembered after deletion, maybe for the same reason that I explained above. I think this can be closed.

But KDE does preserve relative positions of dragged desktop items. So, I'll open a feature request for that.

[tsujan]

Opened #821

[agaida]

right now it works just fine - cool

[tsujan]

You mean #821. Yes, it should have been made that way from start. Good that you mentioned it; previously, I thought in terms of drag cursor image and wanted to look into Qt source to know how it's drawn but the solution was much easier.

[agaida]

@tsujan - is #821 ready?

[tsujan]

@agaida Yes, #823 is ready.

[tsujan]

In short:

Remembering the positions of deleted desktop items is possible but not when we want to have a lightweight file manager.