New handling for URI scheme handlers

[Bastien Nocera]

On Tue, 2010-10-05 at 09:20 -0700, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 5, 2010, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> > The attached patch is changes to the shared-mime-info spec to mention
> > the use of x-scheme-handler/* mime-types.
> > 
> > Any comments?
> 
> i suggested to use the mimetype database in a very similar way for default 
> applications (default terminal, web browser, etc). this idea was denied 
> because it was "misusing the mimetype database for non-mimetype data". if this 
> does indeed become part of the fd.o spec, can we also add something in there 
> for default apps at the same time that uses it in the same/similar manner?

For me, using this for default apps would be one step too far. It's true
that URI schemes aren't file or stream data, but they're closer to the
subject than random "preferred" applications.

For the default web browser, and default e-mail client, you'd use the
handlers for the x-scheme-handler/http and x-scheme-handler/mailto
mime-types, respectively.

Trying to extend this to other applications is a strenuous link at best.

> if consistency reigns and this addition does not achieve consensus approval, 
> we do have .protocol files in KDE already and it would be nice (and sensible) 
> to use something that already exists instead of reinventing new wheels of 
> incompatibility.

For me, pretty much all the applications you'd list as "preferred
applications" that don't use URI schemes should probably stay
desktop-specific.

In GNOME we currently have preferred application settings for:
- web browser (handled through URI scheme)
- mailer (ditto)
- multimedia player (probably a bad idea to have this in the first
place, I'll take the blame here)
- terminal
- visual and mobility a11y apps (magnifier, on screen keyboard)

The latter two we will have directly in gnome-shell for GNOME 3.x, which
leaves us with the terminal.

Is your experience of this any different?

Cheers