Would you find this Caja extension useful?

caja-terminal is an embedded terminal in Caja, the MATE file manager. It is always opens in the current folder, and follows the navigation. It can be open by click the Show button or the Ctrl + Shift + t keybinding. I'd be interested to know if you'd use this extension. Take a look at the video below and cast your vote :slight_smile:

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

3 Likes

That’s an interesting workflow, but for me personally, it’ll be like Tilda where it becomes something I wouldn’t really need or use. Partly because I’m hardwired to call a terminal using CTRL+ALT+T or by right clicking and choosing “Open in Terminal”. Most of the time I’ll be using the one inside Geany.

That said, it could actually be pretty handy – like grepping, touching, listing or editing files quickly.

4 Likes

I found Tilda really handy for things like this.

That’s an outstanding idea Martin and is something I would use a lot

This looks like one less button to run a quick terminal command when browsing directories. Sounds great to me.

This is one thing that I really missed from KDE’s Dolphin file browser, and I’m really glad to hear that it’s coming.

Binding the open/close to F4 and having an option to make it able to appear at the bottom (below the graphical/icon view) would be perfect.
Cheers - Giovanni

For what it’s worth, I’m not sure if this is brilliant idea or a complete antithesis of GUI. :confused:

1 Like

Why would it be a complete antithesis of GUI? Or, rather, if one were to consider it as such, then it would logically follow that the use of any terminal anywhere inside a desktop environment would be an antithesis of that desktop environment.

It’s just one more available choice and choice is a good thing, surely.

2 Likes

I voted “No,” it might be useful for the tinkerer or the pro though.
If there were a third option like “Yes” “No” and “Mixed,” I would have voted “Mixed.”

Accessing terminal on the fly can already be done with F12 (my kids show me that) or ALT+CTRL+T.

My kids…
This where you do not want it, although they are not sudo, they can do things out of control, just because they are kids.
For example: I have already erased their account then re-create it (2 times) as they have fulfilled the SSD. Don’t ask me how they did it; I still do not know how they have done that, fortunately, I have created an account for each of my kids, so it was straightforward to solve the problem.

Giving my kids one more option to access terminal, can be excellent later when they will be more thinking about what they are doing instead of systematically experiencing like they are doing now.
Don’t forget that I see Ubuntu-MATE as a TRUE family friendly OS, certainly, the friendliest ever made (just my opinion).

On the over hand opening Caja, navigating in folders then terminal in Caja with terminal “already” looking in the folder (so no need “cd folder”) is helpful.

Maybe a compromise? for example, To make the button “Show” appear in Caja, it would be nice if it needs to be activated via the menu “View” then select “Show Terminal” or use the shortcut keyboard, but the button “show” should not shows-up by default.

1 Like

I posted this because I’m not certain if the feature is genuinely useful. I use the terminal a lot and Ctrl + Alt +t is my go to for that and sometimes I right click a folder in Caja and Open in Terminal. So I am undecided if this will make it into Ubuntu MATE at the moment. As always your comments help me better evaluate a features usefulness.

@Patrice This is an extension for Caja, therefore it can be disabled via File Management Preferences in the Extensions tab. If you do that, your kids will never see it :wink:

5 Likes

Exactly - it is only a feature if it is selected for in preferences.

I can really see no sound argument against including this in future iterations of Caja. It takes nothing away from existing functionality, but adds new functionality for those that want it. And, finally, it does not present any security risk since it will only be available via activating it in preferences.

What’s not to like?

1 Like

If installed by default, it is active by default. So the user would have to choose to “opt out” of using it.

2 Likes

Could there be any way of having it switched off by default to allay the fears of some less experienced users Martin?

2 Likes

Or activated via File Management? like that we do not have to log in each account to de-activate the option :wink:
More seriously, if I knew that it can be disabled, I would have voted “Yes” having more options is always nice, even if just a few found it useful (and I found the idea useful). Now that I know it can be disabled, you can see/change my vote as a Yes!
And thanks a lot for this fantastic distribution.

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So if you have the terminal plugin opened, it follows the navigation of Caja?

2 Likes

Now that would be nice.

4 Likes

Yeah, it would be freaking awesome.

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I voted “no” for “would I use this?”

… but would vote “Yes” for any beneficial features to be added to any of the MATE system apps.

I voted no because of the question. I’ve never used Tilda for example and turn it off in Startup Apps after install.

If the question was Should it be included by default? I’d probably vote yes. Popular features are good but THAT is a different question. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I become quite comfortable in using command line to the point of getting out of touch how others interact with OS using GUI. However I have a friend who constantly remind me with his story:
“Imagine I’m slouched in my chair. My legs are on the desk. I have a full mug in my hand and the mouse in the other. I’ve came tired from the job so don’t ask of me to move and just type this in to the terminal. Design the GUI in such a way that I don’t need to move. I don’t want to type this, google that, edit there.”
From my point of view this is a brilliant idea. From his point of view this is antithesis of GUI. So I voted on his behalf.

I would argue that more available choice is a suboptimal design principle.

“There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.” - Tim Peters
:smile: