Once we get sandboxed applications (which afaict are still in the works), apps will no longer be able to touch ~/.local and will only see their own ~/.config. So it makes sense to let them control mime associations through a dbus call instead of having them do their own work.
I have a feeling this is something else that will have to be standardized down the line as we would want apps to only have a single dbus interface for this. I'm just speculating though; I'll have a look at implementing something like this in LXQt once I'm back home. Cheers J. Leclanche On Sun, Apr 6, 2014 at 2:50 AM, Mark Edgington <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 6:11 PM, Jerome Leclanche <[email protected]> wrote: >> For what it's worth, I agree. However the use case of browsers asking >> to be default has to be taken into account, and we are very far from >> being able to offer them an api to *properly* become so. > > Hi Jerome, > > I recall someone mentioning on this list not to long ago the idea of > having desktop-environment-specific applications which are able to run > with slightly higher privileges than "ordinary user applications". I > don't know what all would have to go into making something like this a > reality, but to me it makes a lot of sense. > > For example, if such a separation of privileges were possible, then a > user could, via standard desktop-environment configuration tools, > choose among a set of applications registered for a particular use, > deciding which one(s) should be default (or that the user should be > prompted to choose between when opening some kind of > resource/document). But, a mere web-browser or other application > would not have the necessary privileges to make such a change -- the > only thing they would be allowed to do is to launch the > desktop-environment "default apps" tool, and give the user > instructions on what they should do if they wish to make "browser X" > the default. Of course "ordinary apps" would be allowed to register > themselves as handlers for different MIME types, but they would not > have the authority / permissions to make themselves default -- that > decision would be something a user would explicitly need to choose via > the desktop-environment's config tools. > > Nonetheless, even if the above (separate permissions) scenario were to > exist, it would still be important to have some kind of standard API > for choosing a single default and/or preferred-set of apps to handle > different MIME-types, so that this information could be shared between > different desktop-environments, and so that desktop-environment > developers would have a standard by which to develop their > "default-app selection" tools. > > What do you think about this? How feasible would something like this > be to implement? If it could be implemented, it would certainly > guarantee a lot more user-control over preferred apps, etc. > > Regards, > > Mark _______________________________________________ xdg mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
