gnome-volume-manager blank CD defaults

[Michael Wiktowy]

> Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 12:02:57 -0400
> From: "John (J5) Palmieri" <johnp at redhat.com>
> Subject: gnome-volume-manager blank CD defaults
> To: Development discussions related to Fedora Core
> 	<fedora-devel-list at redhat.com>
> Message-ID: <1097164977.22577.6.camel at remedyz.boston.redhat.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain
> 
> I wanted to get the Fedora communities opinion on popping up a burn://
> folder when a blank CD is inserted into the drive.  Right now we pop it
> up which makes sense because if you pop in a blank CD most likely you
> want to burn to it.  Problems come in when a user is using browser mode
> in Nautilus.  If you pop the CD in and out a couple of times you get a
> bunch of burn:// folders.  Since you get a CD icon on the desktop which
> you can double click to open up the burn:// folder I am wondering if I
> should turn this off by default.  I am of no opinion either way so I
> want to see how everyone else feels. 
> 
> -- 
> John (J5) Palmieri
> Associate Software Engineer
> Desktop Group
> Red Hat, Inc.
> Blog: http://martianrock.com

My Opinion since you asked for it:
One of my major annoyances is things that pop up obtrusively. I think
that a default option should be as intuitive and non-intrusive as
possible while still guiding the user to the proper solution.

With that in mind, I would say that the icon appearing on the desktop
with some descriptive title that it is a blank CD and what drive it is
in (realizing that some have multiple burners on their systems) would be
adequate.
Right clicking should give you the option to burn it with your choice of
installed burners.
Double-clicking on it should activate the default burning software which
would be burn://.

I would do this for audio CD also.

i.e. Treat removable media as kind of a pseudo mime-type in nautilus.

If people want to automagically start up things then they can have that
option in the preferences. But this is a semi-automatic solution that
will avoid all the familiar and annoying problems like:
- Burning with an app that asks you to enter a blank CD and then having
another app start up in the middle of the burn. You don't *always* start
a burn by sticking in a blank CD.
- Opening up the default burning software while you already have another
one open in preparation for burning. While all software *should* be
written to block access via hal, forcing that feature on all CD burning
apps just so the default doesn't screw up is not entirely fair ...
especially if they are also included in Fedora (past and present since
supposedly upgrading Fedora between major releases is something that is
"supported").

Just my opinion.
/Mike