Re: "Open With" -> "An Application"

[Jürg Billeter <j bitron ch>]

On Don, 2004-08-12 at 10:24 +0200, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> Well. The application list in the run dialog is constructed from all
> desktop files, and in the new system those desktop files are supposed
> to
> list the mimetypes they handle, so if the app is in the run dialog it
> should already be in the open with menu. (Unless it didn't list some
> mimetype it really supported, which should be fixed.)

You've correctly written that they _should_ already be in the open with
menu. In theory all applications should provide a fdo-compliant desktop
file, too, so there wouldn't be a need at all for the open with other
application dialog....

But in practice users will have installed applications that either don't
provide the MimeType in the desktop file at all (especially in the
upcoming transition phase of non gnome desktop apps) or they just miss
some types in the MimeType lines. And as we all know there probably are
still bugs in the shared-mime-info package; although it's improving we
won't ever be able to guarantee bug-freeness there.

So there are two possibilities, either we leave the dialog as it is and
make it usable only by advanced users - as we can't expect the average
user to know the binaries of the applications he uses. Or we add the
same functionality as found in the run dialog to the open with dialog
and therewith make it easier resp. make it first possible for some users
to associate a file with an application. We should keep in mind that it
doesn't complicate the dialog and it extends the possible user base from
only advanced users to almost any user.

Jürg

-- 
Jürg Billeter <j bitron ch>