Couple of notes.
xdg-terminal-exec in its current form is a minimum intervention
solution: you need to place desktop files for some terminals, then use
xdg-terminal-exec itself as a command to launch terminal.
ArgPrefix has a solid generic use case: there was a bug in Ocrfeeder:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=767732 It required an
argument to open file, but no argument to just launch the app. Current
desktop entry spec can not handle this via single desktop entry.
I'll try to sum up, simplify, and build upon Jan's and Ian's proposals.
Fields for destop entries:
MimeType: what app can open
MimeTypeView: what app can open for viewing
MimeTypeEdit: what app can open for edit
Intent: what actions app represents (analogous to MimeType, like:
x-intent/terminal, x-intent/increase-brightness.) Choosing goes
alongside mimetypes and schemes into mimeapps.list hierarchy.
ArgPrefix: argument(s) to be added to the beginning of command line if
there are other arguments provided.
With all above:
xdg-open some.file: current behavior
xdg-open --edit some.file: uses MimeTypeEdit choices.
xdg-open --view some.file: uses MimeTypeView choices.
xdg-intent terminal: opens terminal.
xdg-intent termianl foo --bar: runs foo --bar in chosen terminal, using
ArgPrefix if needed. IMHO one of the few intents that would ever require
arguments.
This strategy is backward-compatible, uses same data and config
hierarchies, works without dbus (I don't want to touch it even with ten
meter stick), 'xdg-intent terminal' can be used as drop in for terminal
emulators. (xdg-terminal as wrapper to get rid of that space?).
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