Locking files

Question on locking...  If you don't import into the eclipse client there is no way a user can see if a another user has a file locked.  For example user A locks a file.  Users B does not know that User A has the file locked.  The only time User B knows the file is locked is after he makes changes and those changes show up in the pending changes view.  At this point you could have multiple people working on the same file at the same time causing conflicts.  Another issue is that you have to lock the files from the stream level.  When loading files you are loading at the repository workspace level so there is an extra step.  I am going to revisit the shell client to try to find a solution for these issues.  Anybody have any other suggestions?