Bug#352066: libgtk2.0-0: fileselector behaviour idiotic, need a way to force the use of the old file selector

[Eduard Bloch]

Package: libgtk2.0-0
Version: 2.8.10-1
Severity: wishlist

Hello,

I wish there were a way force the use of the old file selector, eg. the
one used by vim-gtk, instead of the new style selector used by Mozilla
now. For fileopen-dialog bashing, see below. Alternatively, it would be
enough to disable some operations causing much IO load, maybe something
like environment variables:

GTK2_FAST_FILE_SELECTOR
GTK2_NO_TYPE_GUESSING

Reason: the new one is simply braindead. It does not add new important
features (bookmarks, fine, almost never needed them), but it is slow
like hell. It seems to open every file (see below) in a directory for
what reason? To guess it's filetype? OMG, why?

Even if I type "/usr/bin/gvim" into Mozilla, it takes about 20 SECONDS?
As user, I expect the dialog to just take that f...ing file since I
entered it manualy - I know it is a file, it is easy to check that it is
a file so I do not need to see another directory listing, I have entered
the whole path so just USE IT. Even when browsing trough the FS using
this dialog, it feels slow. Why?

I don't know which genius has analyzed the user expectation
when developing this behaviour model, but if this has been intended to
be userfriendly, they failed. In fact, I doubt they have ever made real
benchmarks (including time measurement with COLD VFS CACHE) when doing
important design decissions. IIRC KDE1.1.x has been working that way,
kfm was opening each file and for many seconds the kfm client was stuck
when opening a large directory. Apparently it has been improved since
then, but other people need to make the same mistakes and get a bloody
nose.

And meanwhile, it can be that simple. First load the file list, display
the simple icons for the files and let the user do its work immediately.
In background, start another thread which creates the "nice looking"
icons and replaces the first set of icons. I guess everything would be
done in 3 seconds and not in 20 so less CPU time is consumed.

Eduard.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15.1
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages libgtk2.0-0 depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0               1.10.3-1       The ATK accessibility toolkit
hi  libc6                     2.3.5-12       GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libcairo2                 1.0.2-3        The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libfontconfig1            2.3.2-1.1      generic font configuration library
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.8.6-1        The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-bin             2.8.10-1       The programs for the GTK+ graphica
ii  libgtk2.0-common          2.8.10-1       Common files for the GTK+ graphica
ii  libjpeg62                 6b-11          The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  libpango1.0-0             1.10.3-1       Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpng12-0                1.2.8rel-5     PNG library - runtime
ii  libtiff4                  3.8.0-2        Tag Image File Format (TIFF) libra
ii  libx11-6                  6.9.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxcursor1               1.1.3-1        X cursor management library
ii  libxext6                  6.9.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxi6                    6.9.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System Input extension li
ii  libxinerama1              6.9.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System multi-head display
ii  libxrandr2                6.9.0.dfsg.1-4 X Window System Resize, Rotate and
ii  libxrender1               1:0.9.0.2-1    X Rendering Extension client libra

Versions of packages libgtk2.0-0 recommends:
ii  hicolor-icon-theme            0.8-3      default fallback theme for FreeDes

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