Desktop entry: standard arctions, including "Print"?

[David A. Wheeler]

I'd like to be able to select a set of files from the
file manager, possibly not of the same MIME type, and drag them to
a printer icon to print them... or right-click and select "Print".
Open Office files, Gnumeric, whatever.

To do that, I think it'd be useful to put enough information in
the desktop entry spec to say how to do that, and a standard
name for the action (I suggest "Print").
And in fact, a short standard list of common operations
would be a good idea methinks, for similar reasons.

So in the desktop entry spec (currently 0.9.4),
under "Detailed discussion of supporting MIME types",
I suggest adding the following text just before
the last paragraph ("If no DefaultApp is specified..."):

"If an application supports printing,
it SHOULD define an action 'Print' so that it can be used to
print a given type.  Dragging file(s) onto a printer icon,
or other actions that imply printing, should try to invoke
a 'Print' action.  Where there is a separate editing operation
not normally invoked, the action should be named 'Edit'."

Maybe that's not the best way, but I thought I'd put
it out as an idea.

--- David A. Wheeler <dwheeler at dwheeler.com>