Re: [Summary] Meta-data/filesystem-encapsulation

["Larry 'Daffy' Daffner" <vizzie mail airmail net>]

  >> What's we're specifically aiming for is a _per-file_ ability - so
  >> I can set 'less' as the viewer for .log files, but
  >> 'draw_pretty_graph' as the viewer for the
  >> /var/log/httpd/access.log file, as an example.

  MdI> The GNOME file manager already does this.

  MdI> You would do:

  MdI> shell/*.log
  MdI> 	Open=draw_pretty_graph %f
  MdI> 	View=nxterm -e 'less -f %f'

  MdI> The "shell" tag means it should use shell-like filname
  MdI> matching, you can use that or use full regexps our classify by
  MdI> file type (by running the file command and matching the output
  MdI> of file against a table of known types).

Great! This is exactly the sort of mechanism I was envisioning in my
comment. Now:

1) Could this be extended to allow logical operations in the
   specifier? For instance, "re/.*\.jpg" || "file/JPEG image data"?
   Would it make sense? (I think so, it would allow easier
   differentiation between say, mailboxes and mh messages)

2) Is this a general mechanism that we can make available to any
   program, or can we make it so? It would be really nice if all
   programs could take advantage of this mechanism, so we could use
   that, instead of some hackish metadata mechanism. This could also
   provide for per-file icons - for instance, allow an Icon type, and
   for image files it could look in .ee/* for a corresponding
   thumbnail and use that if found, else a generic jpg icon (or
   better, allow that sort of action as a builtin - but still provide
   the 'script creates an icon' mechanism.

3) Are there any instances that this mechanism that doesn't yet cover
   which would require per-file metadata? is there any way we can
   extend this system to avoid that need?

-Larry

-- 
  Larry Daffner        |  Linux: Unleash the workstation in your PC!
  vizzie@airmail.net / http://web2.airmail.net/vizzie/
	Ray's Rule of Precision:
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