New `MimeType` fields in .desktop

[Charles Plessy]

> On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 4:00 PM Charles Plessy
>
> > Instead, how about having a new field (for instance ExtraMimeType) for
> > indicating the lower-priority media types.  Then software like GIMP
> > could "demote" them in the new field, and at worse if the new field is
> > not parsed, then the native or intended types will still be recognised.

Le Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 04:51:49PM +0100, Jehan Pagès a écrit :
> 
> If we do this, we change the meaning of MimeType field for these programs
> and we actually create the problem you mentioned for the other
> (out-of-intent) formats. Indeed we usually don't want GIMP to be the
> default for PNG, JPEG, PDF or SVG. Usually we have a much better default
> for all of these.
> 
> But sometimes when there is absolutely no other software handling these
> formats, GIMP still is a nice fallback.
[...]
> So even though all these MIME types are not GIMP primary intent, it's still
> nice that programs supporting the old desktop spec only would know that
> GIMP can at least serve as a suitable fallback.

Hi Jehan,

I think that you underlined the tradeoff well.

We can keep full backwards compatiblity at the expense of a more complex
procedure.  The issue I have with your proposal is that a large number
of media types will be listed twice in each Desktop entry, and it
complicates parsing for those who want to extract information about
priority.

But partially breaking compatibility as I propose is not good for people
installing by themselves new applications on old desktop systems during
the transition, as they will not see the application listed as capable
to open all the media types it supports.

Whichever solution gets consensus, I would be happy to see things moving
forwards.

Have a nice day,

Charles

Maintainer of the mime-support, media-types and mailcap packages in Debian.

-- 
Charles Plessy                         Nagahama, Yomitan, Okinawa, Japan
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