gedit wants to save in "recently used" by default

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄]

Clean install of 12.04, open gedit from the dash, type into a new document then File -> Save.
By default the save dialog is positioned on "Recently used" which cannot be saved into. Seems a bit strange to default there. Would ~/Documents not make more sense?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gedit 3.3.7-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-19.30-generic-pae 3.2.11
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-19-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Mar 19 17:12:23 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20120211)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gedit
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Johnathon (kirrus)]

Confirmed on oneiric

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Vadim Rutkovsky (roignac)]

Not sure if this is a bug. User can't save file in 'Recent Changes' - he is forced to select a folder. See http://people.gnome.org/~federico/news-2011-07.html#recent-folders for more info on 'Recently used' mechanism

[Joost Van Durme (joostvandurme)]

i absolutely detest this behaviour. Just choose the home folder as default, no?

[hutzlibu (hutzlibu)]

It's definitly a bug ... nobody would have implemented that behaviour as a feature ....

Seriously, it is really annoying.

[Joost Van Durme (joostvandurme)]

Is it possible to implement this as a user-selected choice of folder?

[yvand (yvand)]

Please do something!
Like many (see http://askubuntu.com/questions/63202/can-i-stop-apps-from-selecting-recently-used-by-default-in-file-chooser-dialog), I want gedit to save/open files from current folder and do not want to use "recent used" feature. So I want a feature to allow me to change this default behaviour.

[Ralf Sternberg (ralf-sternberg)]

This is one of the most annoying "features" for me as well, it constantly gets in my way. The current directory is almost always what I want, while the recently used list is always out of context.

I believe that a good UI should support the user without "getting in the way". There may be good intentions, but this solution sucks. Please change it or make it configurable!

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue is somewhat a GTK one, it was discussed on the list, an interesting email on the topic (where one of the upstream suggest adding a configuration for the default mode to use):
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2012-November/msg00040.html

[Iain Lane (laney)]

It looks like this is org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser startup-mode in gtk3. Seb, Lars - can we ship an override to set this to 'cwd'?

For gtk2 you need a keyfile in ~/.config/gtk-2.0 - I don't know how you could fix that there so if we want to fix gtk2 too then it'd probably need a patch to change the default.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Not easy to decide what do here, we don't have real datas to determine if the "recently used" is useful for most users or not.

Reading through the upstream bug comments and the user feedback over recent cycles it feels like "cwd" would be a better default though for our users/Unity though, +1 from me to override the default.

I don't know how we could change GTK2 without a patch to change the default, but if other flavors want the same behaviour adding a patch should be no issue

[Iain Lane (laney)]

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 10:12:42AM -0000, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Not easy to decide what do here, we don't have real datas to determine if the "recently used" is useful for most users or not.
>
> Reading through the upstream bug comments and the user feedback over recent cycles it feels like "cwd" would be a better default though for our users/Unity though, +1 from me to override the default.
>
> I don't know how we could change GTK2 without a patch to change the
> default, but if other flavors want the same behaviour adding a patch
> should be no issue

I've changed this in bzr for gtk3 now, so the fix will be included in
the next upload.

 status fixcommtited

--
Iain Lane [ <email address hidden> ]
Debian Developer [ <email address hidden> ]
Ubuntu Developer [ <email address hidden> ]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gtk+3.0 - 3.10.7-0ubuntu1

---------------
gtk+3.0 (3.10.7-0ubuntu1) trusty; urgency=medium

  * New upstream version
  * debian/patches/git_search_printer_location.patch:
    - Enable search through locations in printers list (lp: #1188571)
  * debian/patches/testsuite-ppc64el-failure.patch:
    - dropped, the changes are in the new version

  [ Iain Lane ]
  * Override the default for org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser startup-mode to
    start file choosers in the working directory (defaulting to the home
    directory) by default, instead of 'Recent Files', which has proved
    unpopular with users. (LP: #959505)
  * Make a writable directory for the testsuite to use during the build -
    fixes failure in `make check' if home dir can't be written to.
 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:16:19 +0100