mime-type/application association spec

[Mike Hearn]

Comments inlined from a curious passer by....

        The second group is a mime hierarchy which contains the list of
        all known mime-type as well as some information about them,
        including links to .desktop files they should be associated
        with.

Why is there a 2 way set of links? ie:

.desktop file <-> mime hierarchy

Why not just have .desktop files stating which mime types they can
handle then an optional set of overrides, for instance for when you want
to "unassociate" a program from a mime type.

        Several .desktop files can be concatenated in a single file to
        avoid having tons of files (FIXME: is that compatible with the
        .desktop spec ?)
        
Not sure this is a good idea. Filing systems tend to be highly optimised
for storage and quick retrieval of files. Putting "file systems within a
file" is sort of dubious from that aspect.....

        It's not possible to associate a mime-type with an app which
        don't have an associated .desktop file.

Are we sure we want to do this? There are quite a few old or broken apps
(think - realplayer) which simply don't use the modern .desktop
standard. Being able to associate files with them manually would be
good. Perhaps a part of the mime-type hierarchy file.



-- 
Mike Hearn <m.hearn at signal.qinetiq.com>
QinetiQ - Malvern Technology Center