							2010-10-03
							Emil Brink


		gentoo: Frequently Asked Questions

0. INTRODUCTION
This file contains some frequently asked questions, and their
answers, about the X11/GTK+ file manager "gentoo". None of
these questions are actual, verbatim, questions asked by users.
They've all been constructed by me, around questions and wishes
sent to me by gentoo's users.


Q1. Does gentoo support drag-and-drop ("DnD") ?
A1: No, it currently does not. This is definitely the #1 most
    asked for feature. However, there are some issues with it
    that makes me hesitate in implementing it:
    1.	Should DnD be between gentoo and other applications
	(e.g. xmms), and/or in gentoo internally? What should
	gentoo do if you drag a file from a desktop's file
	manager and drop it in one of gentoo's panes?
	  Supporting DnD internally would require a pretty
	pretty hefty amount of internal rewriting. :(
    2.	Getting the GtkCList widget (which is what the panes
	in gentoo are implemented with) to support DnD without
	losing the possibility to drag to select multiple items
	seems difficult. I am not willing to sacrifice the
	multi-selection.


Q2: How can I make the font used in file listings bigger?
A2: By creating and editing the .gentoogtkrc file. See the
    README.gtkrc for further instructions.


Q3: Compiling gentoo fails because <errno.h> doesn't exist or has
    problems, what's up?
A3: You have an incorrectly or incompletely installed C compiler.
    On some Linux varieties, you need to "make dep" in the Linux
    kernel sources, since <errno.h> relies on kernel headers.


Q4. I get a weird warning about case sensitivity and ASCII?!
A4. Yes. This indicates that you have successfully built gentoo in a
    localizable manner. It also indicates that gentoo has performed
    tests on your host's strcoll(3) string comparison function, and is
    letting you know of any limitations found.


Q5. The selection mouse handling is all weird, why can't it just behave
    like the rest of the world does it?
A5. It behaves in the way it does since that's how DirOpus on the Amiga
    did it, and the author happens to like being able to click and drag
    and always add to the selection without having to touch the keyboard.
    If you disagree, change the "Modify 'Control' Key State" dirpane
    setting to "System Default".


Q6. What is "Click-M-Click"? It doesn't do anything?! Aargh!
A6. Sure it does, but it is a bit sneaky and hard to find by "mistake".
    Basically, it's a simple mouse gesture. It stands for "click, then
    move, and click again". It triggers if you click a file in one pane,
    then move the mouse to the other pane and click again, all within
    a pre-set time limit. It is useful for accessing frequently used
    commands in a way that is more rapid(-feeling, at least) than using
    a pop-up menu or even a keyboard shortcut. For example, by binding
    it to archive extraction, you can extract an archive by just clicking
    twice with a bit of (precise) mouse movement in between. Note that
    Click-M-Click acts like a single global event, which you can only
    bind to one action (on the "Controls" configuration page). To get
    type-specific things to happen, just bind it to the FileAction command
    using e.g. "FileAction action=cmc" and then define custom "cmc"
    Actions in the appropriate Styles.


Q7. How do I set the background color of the panes? The bright white is
    hurting my eeeyes!
A7. You need to go through the .gentoogtkrc file, and set the "base"
    element in a style which then gets used by the "*mainPane0" and
    "*mainPane1" widgets. See this page for more details:
    http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/gtk/gtk-resource-files.html.


Q8. Any further questions?
A8. No, it doesn't seem so. If you disagree, get in touch.
