A spec to set default terminal applications?

[Jan Tojnar]

Reusing `Categories` key would be nice, but we would still need 
`category-defaults.list` for actually choosing the default representant 
for each category, would not we?

Caching is a good point, we would need to create some mechanism no 
matter which solution we choose – for instance, if some of the 
actions were optional, they would probably need to be cached as well.

On Fri, 31 Aug, 2018 at 2:54 PM, PCMan <pcman.tw at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi again,
> There is another way to make this xdg terminal exec stuff more
> standard compliant by reusing XDG menu spec.
> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apas02.html
> We can parse all desktop entry files and collect every one with
> Category=TerminalEmulator to generate a list of terminal emulators.
> This way we don't have to manually maintain a terminal.list file.
> Of course parsing all of the *.desktop files is slow so we will need
> something like "update-mime-database" to generate the list.
> 
> To provide desktop entry files for those apps which are not shipped
> with their own, we can install desktop files for them.
> set XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/terminal-emulators:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
> 
> And just add our own desktop entry files in
> /usr/share/terminal-emulators/*.desktop for those terminals which do
> not have desktop entries.
> So we don't need to invent another spec to manage the terminals.
> 
> Regards
> 
> On Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 8:46 PM PCMan <pcman.tw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>  Hello,
>>  Just took a look at xdg-terminal-exec and I liked the idea.
>>  Actually I figured out something similar previously but did not 
>> write any code.
>>  There is, however, one thing I'd like to propose to make the spec 
>> more complete.
>>  Use the Desktop Entry Actions.
>>  
>> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html#extra-actions
>> 
>>  Then, for each desktop entry file of a terminal emulator, we define
>>  some standard actions:
>>  * OpenDirInWindow: a command to open a dir in a new tab
>>  * OpenDirInTab: a command to open a dir in a new tab
>>  * ExecInWindow: a command to run a program in a new window
>>  * ExecInTab: a command to run a program in a new tab
>> 
>>  When the "InTab" actions are not defined in the desktop entry file,
>>  fallback to the "InWindow" version.
>>  This should cover most of the common operations when we need a 
>> terminal window.
>> 
>>  For example, we can write xterm.desktop like this
>>  [Desktop Entry]
>>  Name=Gnome Terminal
>>  Exec=gnome-terminal
>>  Actions=OpenDirInWindow;
>> 
>>  [Desktop Action OpenDirInWindow]
>>  Name=Open Directory in Terminal
>>  Exec=gnome-terminal --window --working-directory %f
>> 
>>  [Desktop Action OpenDirInTab]
>>  Name=Open Directory in Terminal
>>  Exec=gnome-terminal --tab --working-directory %f
>> 
>>  [Desktop Action ExecInWindow]
>>  Name=Execute in Terminal
>>  Exec=gnome-terminal -e %f
>> 
>>  In this way, we reuse the existing spec and support various kinds 
>> of operations.
>>  The only drawback is %f means a file name, but what we need to pass 
>> to
>>  the terminal emulator is actually a full command line with args.
>> 
>>  Just my two cents.
>> 
>>  On Thu, Aug 30, 2018 at 3:36 PM Vladimir Kudrya 
>> <vladimir-csp at yandex.ru> wrote:
>>  >
>>  > Couple of notes.
>>  >
>>  > xdg-terminal-exec in its current form is a minimum intervention
>>  > solution: you need to place desktop files for some terminals, 
>> then use
>>  > xdg-terminal-exec itself as a command to launch terminal.
>>  >
>>  > ArgPrefix has a solid generic use case: there was a bug in 
>> Ocrfeeder:
>>  > https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=767732 It required an
>>  > argument to open file, but no argument to just launch the app. 
>> Current
>>  > desktop entry spec can not handle this via single desktop entry.
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > I'll try to sum up, simplify, and build upon Jan's and Ian's 
>> proposals.
>>  >
>>  > Fields for destop entries:
>>  > MimeType: what app can open
>>  > MimeTypeView: what app can open for viewing
>>  > MimeTypeEdit: what app can open for edit
>>  > Intent: what actions app represents (analogous to MimeType, like:
>>  > x-intent/terminal, x-intent/increase-brightness.) Choosing goes
>>  > alongside mimetypes and schemes into mimeapps.list hierarchy.
>>  > ArgPrefix: argument(s) to be added to the beginning of command 
>> line if
>>  > there are other arguments provided.
>>  >
>>  > With all above:
>>  > xdg-open some.file: current behavior
>>  > xdg-open --edit some.file: uses MimeTypeEdit choices.
>>  > xdg-open --view some.file: uses MimeTypeView choices.
>>  > xdg-intent terminal: opens terminal.
>>  > xdg-intent termianl foo --bar: runs foo --bar in chosen terminal, 
>> using
>>  > ArgPrefix if needed. IMHO one of the few intents that would ever 
>> require
>>  > arguments.
>>  >
>>  > This strategy is backward-compatible, uses same data and config
>>  > hierarchies, works without dbus (I don't want to touch it even 
>> with ten
>>  > meter stick), 'xdg-intent terminal' can be used as drop in for 
>> terminal
>>  > emulators. (xdg-terminal as wrapper to get rid of that space?).
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