2011/9/22 Jo-Erlend Schinstad
<joerlend.schinstad@xxxxxxxxx>
Den 22. sep. 2011 20:40, skrev Alex Launi:
Can someone explain why we think we want the ability to run rm directly from unity anyway? Is there a single person who wants this functionality who doesn't have a terminal open all of the time anyway?
rm is a bad example. But being able to restart compiz using "compiz --replace" without opening a terminal and running "nohup compiz --replace" is a good reason to keep it around. Or to quickly open a root nautilus. (Which itself is an example of situations when it should not be necessary to run a command) Stuff like that.
There's a much better solution to this: add a key to default unity to enter command mode. Something like ~ or / or > (.) would work fine.
In other words:
1. Press unity key to show the dash.
2. Press ~ to enter command mode. Press backspace to return to normal mode.
3. Type a command, ideally with tab autocompletion
Step 2 is what unity is currently missing (i.e. a way to enter command mode). Autocompletion is also a pretty important feature.
I'm pretty sure most dash-like launchers have a command mode (I'm pretty sure I could do that with gnome-do). I'd actually find this more convenient than Alt-F2, because Alt-F2 is pretty awkward to type on my laptop (combination of tiny function keys and awkward angle). With this approach, Alt-F2 would still enter command mode in a single step, just like now.