MIME interface suggestions

[Kevin Francis <kevin loose-screws com>]

I was looking over the new MIME interface
<http://www.gnome.org/~jrb/files/mime/> and one thing struck me -- we're
still giving people a "Browse ..." dialog to pick the executable to open
the file with. The dialogs in question are these:

http://www.gnome.org/~jrb/files/mime/open-with-dialog.png
http://www.gnome.org/~jrb/files/mime/file-properties-add.png

and possibly others.

On a Windows system, this is silly, and on a Linux/UNIX system its
ludicrous. Users cannot be expected to browse the FHS to figure out
where their video player or image viewer is if its not listed already.
As software developer, and a person who isn't at all afraid of the
command line, this *still* bothers me.

An example is say ... a PHP file. This type of file is set to open in
gedit by default, but if I have Bluefish installed, I'd have to click
browse or type the executable name in. Though simple, this seems to be
break with GNOME's ambitions somewhat.

Perhaps a more friendly UI can be built, using the applications that
live in the Applications menu? That way, they can pick from (maybe) a
categorised list or drop down. As a last resort, we can then offer a
Browse dialog.

I hope I don't offend by making this observation (these kinds of issues
are quite often flame fests), but it bothers me that GNOME has a HIG and
usability ideals etc. but can't solve this more elegantly.

-- 
Kevin Francis
<http://denial.loose-screws.com/>