Questions for users, about vfs support

Hi all

I'm seeking feedback about the merits of adding vfs capabilities to emelFM2. 
Again, for those not too familiar with the jargon, this means the ability to 
display the contents of virtual (as opposed to local, mounted) directories in 
e2's file-lists. And it generally covers 2 categories - inside file archives, 
and non-local directories accessed by ftp etc.

Tooar's original roadmap for e2 did include vfs capabilities. Some 
(www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml) would say that all file managers like e2 
should handle vfs.

But if this is to be added to e2, it's not without cost: some disruption to the 
UI, fatter code, slower operation (probably not noticeable for "normal" 
operations though), dependency on some other library(ies) which support the 
protocols for interacting with a vfs. Not to forget - time and effort and bugs, 
before it all works properly. 

My questions for you are:

1. How strongly do you feel about adding this capability to e2 ? Other 
application(s) can be used for the same functionality, and custom applications 
typically have more features.

2. How acceptable is it to create a dependency on gnome-vfs ? It seems that the 
vfs-mechanism being developed within the freedesktop.org community works on top 
of gnome-vfs (at least). Gnome vfs is being actively developed, its API is well 
documented (unlike some other candidates), recent versions (IIRC >= 2.15.4) 
have reduced further dependencies e.g. bonobo is gone.

3. Linux and one? of the BSD's (etc??) support fuse. Does anyone have any 
experience using fuse for archive and/or remote directory processing? Is it 
worth looking into ?

4. How unpleasant is it to use the current unpack plugin ? That roughly 
substitutes for archive-vfs, the difference being that the archive is actually 
unpacked and repacked, which is slower, and not necessarily possible for all 
archive-types, but does allow comprehensive "manipulation" of archive contents.

Regards
Tom


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