Nautilus desktop icon placement/keep aligned

[Jeremy Messenger]

On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:49:32 -0500, Andreas Wetzel <mickey242 at gmx.net>  
wrote:

> Hi
>
> i wonder if anybody else sees a problem with the way nautilus (mis)places
> icons on the desktop, when the 'keep aligned' feature is selected?
>
> One thing that has always bothered me since I'm using Gnome, is that the  
> first
> column of the icon grid starts approximately 1 inch from the left screen  
> edge,
> which IMHO is a way too big left margin. 8-12 pixels would totally be  
> enough.
> Ideally the icon grid offsets would be configurable, even if only by  
> using
> gconf-editor.
>
> Today i had some time to play around a bit more with the "keep aligned"
> feature. When having all icons aligned nicely in a vertical column, then
> logging out and back in, icons appear anywhere but aligned to the icon  
> grid.
> I mean WTF? Only de-selecting "keep aligned" from the menu and then  
> selecting
> it again will have the icons eventually snap back to their grid  
> positions.
> Until the next time you log out of cause.
>
> Another odd 'feature' is that the horizontal grid lines are set every 20  
> pixel
> or so, allowing icons to be placed overlapping.
>
> I really do not intend to sound negative, and Nautilus surely is a great  
> piece
> of software, but this is an elementary feature of a desktop environment  
> that
> even windows gets (mostly) right somehow. If you start a Google search  
> for
> the term:
>
> Nautilus "keep aligned"
>
>
> You find bug reports and other stuff related to that subject dating back  
> to
> 2003. I wonder if the Nautilus developers are aware that the "keep  
> aligned"
> feature does not work as expected, to put it mildly.

Only way for Nautilus developers to get aware of this bug is to submit in  
their bugzilla. If this bug is already exists in bugzilla, then nothing we  
can do until someone (perhaps, you?) has interest to create patch.

BTW: Nautilus developers mess around with zoom, grid, pixel and align  
often at almost each major release. I haven't seen them to get this right  
yet.

Cheers,
Mezz

> Kind regards, Andreas


-- 
mezz7 at cox.net  -  mezz at FreeBSD.org
FreeBSD GNOME Team
http://www.FreeBSD.org/gnome/  -  gnome at FreeBSD.org