Re: [Nautilus-list] script w/ mime handling

[David Emory Watson <dwatson cs ucr edu>]

On Wed, 2001-10-17 at 09:30, Darin Adler wrote:
> If we want to install scripts with a packaging system, then we ought to
> change where Nautilus looks for scripts so it can find scripts places other
> than the user's home directory. The current feature is suitable for
> customization by the user, but not for scripts that are part of installed
> packages.

I have been thinking about this as well.  I would be willing to create a
patch to do this if someone can suggest a good system wide directory to
place "standard" scripts...

> Anyway, if someone wants to implement the MIME type feature, we have to
> decide whether we want to use a directory structure or some kind of syntax
> inside the script to determine which scripts show up for each file.
> 
> If we use a directory structure, we don't have the start of something that
> can allow us to add other attributes to scripts. For example, once you have
> a script that applies to only certain kinds of items, you might also want a
> script that can have other attributes, like a check mark in the menu or
> something like that.
> 
> On the other hand, if we use some kind of syntax inside the scripts, we have
> to open each script to read this information and keep some kind of table
> inside Nautilus. And it will make the current script system, which works
> with any kind of executable, more specific to scripts as opposed to compiled
> binaries.

I think that this is a bad idea.

What is wrong with the proposal from Vlad Harchev:
http://lists.eazel.com/pipermail/nautilus-list/2001-April/002744.html

In particular, I think the idea of having special metafiles associated
with each script is a good one.  It makes script installation as simple
as cp scipt_name.* ~/.nautilus/scripts...  It shouldn't introduce any
compatibility problems, etc.  Does anyone see any problems with this?

> Maybe there are other pros and cons to these two schemes, but in either
> case, I think the first thing we need is someone who wants to implement the
> feature.

Like Jonathan, I am also interested in implementing this feature.  I
actually started coding a few days ago (a simplified version of Vlad's
proposal supporting only script name, mime type and tooltip), but then
ran into some technical difficulties and got distracted.  Maybe I will
give it another shot after 1.05...