Re: xpdf and other alternatives

["Michael V. De Palatis" <mvd gatech edu>]

On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 12:37:07PM -0400, Andrew Conkling wrote:
> On 9/28/06, Michael V. De Palatis <mvd gatech edu> wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 09:03:37AM -0500, Steve Bergman wrote:
> > > As a Gnome app, it should use the default application for that file
> > > type.
> > >
> > > In Gnome 2.14, I just tried it.  In Nautilus, right-clicking on a pdf
> > > file and selecting "properties->open with", I found that xpdf is the
> > > default for .pdf files.  Opening a pdf with epiphany opens it in xpdf.
> > > I changed it in nautilus to use "Document Viewer" (Evince) and now
> > > epiphany opens it in evince.
> >
> > Well, unfortunately that doesn't work for me. I should be forced into
> > using the Gnome settings daemon just so that I can get my web browser
> > to use the appropriate helper applications that I want.
> >
> > This is really probably my biggest complaint about Epiphany -- It is
> > over-reliant in areas such as this on being a Gnome application, which
> > means that those of us who prefer not to use Gnome have a harder time
> > using it.
> 
> There are other non-GNOME browsers.  From the project page:
> <snip>
> 
> I'm fairly sure they're targeting the GNOME desktop, and are thusly
> making it easiest for its users.  I, for one, appreciate the
> simplicity over using Firefox with its rather complicated
> implementation of filetypes and actions.

Certainly. But I like Epiphany over Firefox for a number of reasons
(see, e.g., the recent issues between Debian and the Mozilla
Foundation; also, e.g., the lighter interface). I just wish there was
a way to use the browser *without* having to use Gnome in order to get
it to work properly. This is really the only area in which I'm having
a problem thus far.

Also, I said earlier that I don't want to have to run
gnome-settings-daemon. I'm not sure if this would solve the problem or
not, actually, but it's just a guess. To reiterate, I do have nautilus
configured to use xpdf, despite not using nautilus, and Epiphany still
tries to use acroread (this is another point which I didn't
mention... it doesn't actually *succeed* in starting acroread... I
have to manually kill the processes or else the browser just freezes).

-- 
Michael V. De Palatis
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Physics
837 State Street
Atlanta, GA 30332-0430

mvd 'at' gatech [dot] edu
http://mike.depalatis.net