Idea about generic command framework for launching common applications

[Darren Fulton]

Thank you for your response.   The alternatives system is a good way to
go I think.  As for which program types or categories to designate, I
would think that we would want to identify the most commonly used types
of programs that people use, especially those where there are multiple,
largely interchangeable, programs within those categories.

Specifically, I'm thinking:
text-editor (I prefer text-editor to "editor", despite that "editor" is
traditionally used to reference a text editor),
web-browser (or www-browser),
image-editor,
image-viewer,
word-processor,
spreadsheet,
sound-player,
sound-recorder,
sound-editor,
email-client,
terminal,
file-manager.

I'm not dead-set on these, but these seem to be logical choices.  More
can be added in the future.

--
Thank you,

Darren Fulton


daengbo at gmail.com wrote:
> Right now on Debian, this is happening with a lot of programs. For 
> example, www-browser launches the default browser and editor launches 
> the preferred text editor. This is all handled by 
> /usr/sbin/update-alternatives. Do you want more than that?
>
> Dan
>
> > I think it would be easier to launch applications if you had the option
> >
> > to run the default application of a particular type from a short,
> >
> > generic, plain language command.
> > I am suggesting that it would be nice if, for example, you were logged
> >
> > into a KDE session on some random computer and you entered "text-editor"
> >
> > into the "Run Command..." box or in a terminal session, it would launch
> >
> > a text editing program such as kwrite or gedit or whatever the user's
> >
> > default text editor is. This could be implemented with symbolic links or
> >
> > the alternatives system or perhaps some other way.
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