Desktop integration

[linas linas org (Linas Vepstas)]

I have a request/question having to do with 'desktop integration'.
Several, actually, for mail, html and editing.
                                                                                
I'm developing a gnome app 'gnotime' (used to be gtt, part
of gnome-utils). It has several large text-edit areas.  I want
to add a button , which, when clicked, brings up 'the users
favorite editor', (e.g. gedit), allows them to edit away, and then,
when done, the 'save' pipes the results back to my app.
                                                                                
Problem: there seems to be no gnome mechanism, preferences or mimetype
for discovering this editor, and working with it to transfer the
'document' back and forth.  (I'm afraid of mentioning the next-level
issue, which is exerting a little bit of control on the editor's GUI,
e.g. possibly removing certain menus, or maybe adding to some of
its menus).
                                                                                
Next issue: gnotime prepares reports as html pages, and displays
them w/ gtkhtml.  I'd like to add a button called 'email this report'.
It would bring up the user's favorite email tool, automatically
add my report as an attachment, and give user a chance to edit the
recipient list, maybe compose a breif 'cover letter'.
                                                                                
Problem: I don't know of a mechanism for acheiving the above.
(Forget the next-level issue, which is asking the mailer who the
thing was sent to, so that I can remember the recipient list,
and recall it for next time).
                                                                                
Final example:  Some of the html reports are rather 'raw', and need
to be edited a bit before they can be mailed out.  Currently, I hand
edit the raw html with vi ... but it sure would be nice to pipe it
to a WYSIWYG html editor, however lame and low-function that editor
would be .. all I need is cut, paste, insert, changefont.  That
level of stuff, nothing fancy.
                                                                                
----
The which-editor/which-emailer/which-html-editor question(s) are
all really just one and the same question: how do I get to leverage
some other application which is good at some task, so that I can embed
it in my app?   Right now, this is still a pretty daunting task,
and, what's worse,  I have to target specific apps if I have any hope of
making it work. (e.g. gedit, evo, gtkhtml).
                                                                                
What I am fishing for is a generic framework so that I wouldn't
need to do this with app-specific support.  It seems reasonable to me
that gnome (with or without KDE) should provide this kind of generic
framework.  This based on the presumption that I can't possibly
be the only person in the world to want such a thing.
                                                                                
I can vaguely daydream about volunteering to write code to do something
like this, but I have no idea of what the architecture of it should
be, how it would fit into the grand scheme of a gnome desktop (or
even KDE).  I could flounder around, but without the central
consensus and support from the desktop powers-that-be, there is no
way that this kind of support would become pervasive across
the universe of gnome apps ...
                                                                                
The generic, desired features sound simple enough... what's the
the next step?  What's the answer?
                                                                                
--linas
                                                                                

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