Spec to define the default terminal?

[Per Olofsson]

Hi,

Den 2015-10-20 12:23, Thomas Gläßle skrev:
> - xdg-open does not know how to spawn terminals (leading to the
> application aborting or even worse: suppressed output)

Only in generic mode. When running under a desktop environment xdg-open 
calls e.g. gvfs-open, kde-open5, exo-open. In that case it is their 
responsibility to open a terminal window.

> - not sure what desktop environments are doing in their code base, maybe
> hardcoding their own terminals

Many use gsettings or config files.

Apparently GNOME removed the UI for choosing terminal so you have to use 
the gsettings command to change it.

> - xdg-terminal (unreleased, part of xdg-utils) currently even looks at
> $TERM and uses xterm as hardcoded fallback

Again, only in generic mode.

> 1 a) invent a new variable e.g. $TERMINAL or similar that works like
> $BROWSER, i.e. something of the form TERMINAL=urxvt:gnome-terminal:xterm

Again, the variable would be mostly for generic mode, not DEs.

> 3). invent a mimetype for terminal applications so available terminals
> can be iterated via .desktop files and a default can be requested in the
> mimeapps.list file, e.g.:
>
>      [Desktop Entry]
>      name=terminator
>      GenericName=X Terminal Emulator
>      Exec=terminator -x %F
>      MimeType=x-terminal-emulator

I was sceptical at first but now I think it might be a good idea, 
although strictly speaking it is an abuse of MIME types. It is similar 
to how URIs are handled, with x-scheme-handler/<scheme>.

The Exec field would need to be specified differently though. %F is 
defined as a list of files, not a command.

Also it needs to be implemented in desktop environments. There's no 
point in only implementing it in xdg-open/xdg-terminal.

> concerning 1 a)
>
>    - [+] nice and simple
>    - [-] have to hardcode command line options, e.g. terminator uses "-x"
> rather than "-e"

There's nothing stopping you from using commands with arguments. It 
works in $BROWSER and $MAILER.

-- 
Pelle