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Re: Idea - Unity Preview & Nautilus Content Aware Modules

 

Nice Idea. I'd love to have something like Android Intents on Ubuntu. It
would work well with Unity previews.

On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 3:21 AM, Thibaut Brandscheid <randaltor@xxxxxx>wrote:

> Hi
>
> Looking at a picture of the new Unity preview function the following idea
> pooped into my mind (extends a previous brainstorm idea<http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/24505/>of mine).
>
> *Idea:*
> It would be cool to have little programs called "Unity Modules". These
> modules would be like CLI programs but mainly for the Desktop. Every module
> would be capable to preform given related task*s* on predefined file type*
> s*. Now Unity preview and Nautilus comes into play.
>
> - Dash:
> When opening the preview of a document in Dash, the OS would check if any
> Unity modules exists that supports the given file type, if yes it would add
> a button for it to the preview window. If we would have e.g. a Unity module
> to convert any text file type to PDF the button would be labeled 'Convert
> to PDF'.
>
> - Nautilus:
> A user selects multiple files and preforms a right click. The OS would
> check if there are Unity modules that can handle the selected files and
> display the triggerable actions in a sub-menu (called e.g. 'Further
> Actions'). All modules that can't handle the selection are discarded →
> multiple file types = less module actions available...
>
> Unity modules should be designed in a way that they can be used in the
> Dash, Nautilus, from CLI...
> It would be nice if user could *easily* write there own Unity modules
> (as: shell script, java script, python, c...).
>
> Unity Modules could extend the Dash + [enter Program name here]
> functionality in a way we can't anticipated yet. Maybe Unity Modules
> could even be useful for voice stuff... *dreaming* :)
>
> *I guess a lot of module interactions could be integrated quite easily
> because the code already exists. The Unity Modules would only provide a
> common interface to access it.*
>
>
> *Unity Module Suggestions:*
> PDF Module: Convert any text or image file to PDF - split/merge PDF's.
> Ubuntu One Module: Allows to upload a file to the cloud / create a public
> link.
> Image Converter Module: Convert/resizes images to given size (px or file
> size).
> Empathy Module: send file to online contact.
>
> Modules that could be written by users:
> SSH Module: Upload file to Server XYZ.
> Terminal Module: Open file dir location in terminal
> Media Convert Module: Convert sound or video file to XYZ.
> ...
>
>
> *Pros:*
>
>    - content aware
>    - needs to be implemented once and can be used on multiple
>    places/programs
>    - follows the Unix philosophy (one problem, one program)
>    - a lot of code that could be used in Unity Modules already exists
>    - current IT world lacks something like this
>
>
>
> Your thoughts?
>
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>


-- 
Owais Lone
http://www.owaislone.org

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