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31 </style><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="GnomeVFS - Filesystem Abstraction library"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="GnomeVFS - Filesystem Abstraction library"><link rel="previous" href="index.html" title="GnomeVFS - Filesystem Abstraction library"><link rel="next" href="gnome-vfs-first-steps.html" title="A Gentle Programming Primer"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><table class="navigation" width="100%" summary="Navigation header" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"><tr valign="middle"><td><a accesskey="p" href="index.html"><img src="left.png" width="24" height="24" border="0" alt="Prev"></a></td><td><a accesskey="h" href="index.html"><img src="home.png" width="24" height="24" border="0" alt="Home"></a></td><th width="100%" align="center">GnomeVFS - Filesystem Abstraction library</th><td><a accesskey="n" href="gnome-vfs-first-steps.html"><img src="right.png" width="24" height="24" border="0" alt="Next"></a></td></tr></table><div class="chapter" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="about"></a>Introduction to GnomeVFS</h2></div></div><div></div></div><div class="toc"><p><b>Table of Contents</b></p><dl><dt><a href="about.html#id2820087">Uses and Purpose</a></dt><dt><a href="gnome-vfs-first-steps.html">A Gentle Programming Primer</a></dt></dl></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="id2820087"></a>Uses and Purpose</h2></div></div><div></div></div><p>
32 GnomeVFS is a filesystem abstraction library allowing applications
33 plugable transparent access to a variety of "real" filesystems, from
34 WebDAV to digital cameras, to the local filesystem. It also contains
35 a number of other convenient file utilities such as a comphrehensive
36 MIME database / Application registry, and a copy engine. Use of GnomeVFS
37 ensures that an application or component will be usable by Nautilus
38 or other GnomeVFS applications for handling the display of data from
40 </p><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="id2870496"></a>User's Perspective</h3></div></div><div></div></div><p>
41 From a user's perspective GnomeVFS enabled applications provide consistent
42 access to their data, whether it be stored on remote servers or on their
43 local harddisk, or even a peripheral device such as a Rio or a digital
44 camera. Rather than having to work around the distinction between storage
45 you can work off of and storage you can only "download" from or "upload" to,
46 GnomeVFS allows users to store their documents and data wherever it is
48 </p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="id2870517"></a>Developer's Perspective</h3></div></div><div></div></div><p>
49 Besides providing transparent access to data methods that you might
50 otherwise have to implement, GnomeVFS provides a number of convenience
51 libraries for processing URIs, detecting the MIME type of files, and
52 even figuring out which applications or components to launch to view
53 a file or what icon to use. Writing a GnomeVFS module may also be an
54 appropriate solution to some data access problems as it allows the
55 developer to implement a relatively small number of functions to gain
56 general filesystem semantics (and of course, writing a GnomeVFS module
57 benefits other applications too!).
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