Re: Feature Proposal - Sushi

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Mon, 2011-05-16 at 09:51 -0400, Cosimo Cecchi wrote:
> 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.

Speaking as someone who used to work for a fairly large ISV,
a stable way to provide plugins would be nice. Of course, we
should get all the common stuff built in, but we're not going
to get all the vertical apps.

I understand not wanting to lock yourself into an API early,
but I think it's something you should keep on the radar.

I don't know how your current plugin works, but it seems to
me it could work the same way as our thumbnailers: install
a script that takes an input file and creates a preview, in
this case in any of a number of standard formats.

Thanks,
Shaun