soledad penadés

Complaining is cheap--acting is for the brave ones! So I took the brave, proactive path and wrote aafm: an ADB based file manager, for those of us which can't get MTP to work, no matter how many voodoo rituals we perform in front of the Sacred Droid Puppet beforehand.

I've made sure that the project's README has very detailed instructions on how to install and use it, but please let me know if there's still something obscure or simply not working.

The tools

I've learnt quite a lot of GTK stuff with this little project, and I'll probably learn a lot more in the future when I implement what is missing (that is, unless things get resolved, MTP starts working everywhere and this project isn't needed any more). Python and the PyGTK bindings make working with GTK a very smooth experience, totally unlike using just pure C.

I also used Glade "seriously" for the first time, although I had tinkered with it a couple years ago, but never did anything serious. It is so far the easiest GUI builder I've ever used, and the only one in which you can prototype and refactor things without fearing that you'll end up with a corrupted binary interface file that you can't recover. So props up to the GNOME, Glade and PyGTK developers--it's a pleasure to build software with that team. That said, it's got some oddities, but they can be worked around.

90s called, they want their interface back!

As a funny anecdote, initially there were two buttons with arrows at the center of the application. One pointing right (for transferring files to the device) and another one pointing left (for transferring them to the computer). But mrdoob said that it looked like a Nokia application from the 90s, and I felt ashamed at that comparison. It was unacceptable!

Therefore I removed the buttons and reworked things so that you can drag and drop files, or use contextual menus if you prefer. You can also drag and drop between the device and Nautilus (the GNOME file explorer) or any file explorer that supports the XDS protocol for copying files. I've read that the default KDE explorer supports it too, as well as many other managers, so you should be OK even if you don't use Nautilus.

That "mildly harsh" criticism was actually a good thing, since the application looks way nicer now, and I find dragging and dropping files much more natural and comfortable than selecting what I want to transfer, navigate to the place I want to transfer things to, and then clicking a button to initiate the transfer.

If you like it...

... spread the word about it or help me improve it (patches welcome)!