Proposed XDG Mime spec and gnome-vfs

[Jonathan Blandford <jrb redhat com>]

Hey guys,

There is currently a shared mime-type spec on xdg-list proposed by
Thomas Leonard (of Rox desktop fame).  The spec can be seen at:

  http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~tal00r/info.html

The current proposal is just for a shared file->mime-type mapping
system.  We'd like to write a mime-type->handler system as well, though
there is no current proposal for that at the moment.

I'd love to see a shared mime-spec in general use across all apps,
rather than the random hodge-podge we currently have.  Additionally, I'd
like to do the work to try to get support for this spec (when done) into
gnome-vfs.  I'd urge anyone interested in this subject to join the
current discussion on the free-desktop list.  Archives are available at:

  https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/xdg-list/2003-February/001183.html

What do people think of this?  The actual process of going from
file->mime-type is pretty generic, so I think I can fit it in without
any external API changes.  The one big problem is that on-disk formats
will change, which means that we'd need to consider a portability layer
there.  Are there any requirements beyond the current system that we
need to consider?  Also, are there any problems with the current API
that make this plan seem unsound?

Thanks,
-Jonathan