Re: Feature Proposal - Sushi

[Cosimo Cecchi <cosimoc gnome org>]

On Mon, 2011-05-16 at 13:42 +0100, Calum Benson wrote:
> On 16 May 2011, at 12:18, Luca Ferretti wrote:
> 
> > Also, what about content handler/previewer? I remember this similar
> > feature on mac os provides a dedicated API and policy allowing third
> > parties to provide their own "previewers" (i.e. gimp should/could
> > provide the plugin to allow previewing of xcf files)
> 
> On that note, one of the most useful things about the OS X equivalent
> (QuickLook) is that it comes with plug-ins out of the box for
> third-party apps that you don't necessarily have installed. 
> 
> In particular, this makes it possible to view the content of most
> simple .doc, .ppt, .xls files etc. without ever having to install any
> office software (Microsoft's or otherwise). It would certainly be
> great to see that functionality in GNOME, as I'm sure a lot of people
> (like me) only ever really use Libre/OpenOffice to read the occasional
> annoying .doc attachment.

[ Note that office documents (both OpenDocument and MSOffice formats)
viewing is currently supported in Sushi by using unoconv(1) to convert
them to a temporary PDF and using the Evince plugin to view them ]

Yes, it's currently possible for 3rd-party applications to provide
custom plugins, and they would basically be treated exactly in the same
way as a built-in one.
Though I'd ideally see plugins for the most commonly used formats all in
the main tree (git master actually has a pretty complete viewer set
now), and I'm not providing any kind of API warranty, at least for the
time being.

Cheers,
Cosimo