[Pkg-xfce-devel] xdg-utils support in xfce4

[Carlo Segre]

On Sat, 12 Aug 2006, Yves-Alexis Perez wrote:

> On Fri, 2006-08-11 at 23:50 -0500, Carlo Segre wrote:
>> Hi xfce4 maintainers.  Are there plans to support the xdg-utils in
>> xfce4?
>> I ask because some functionality of LyX is now broken because it has
>> recently transitioned to using xdg-utils.
>
> Can you be a little more precise about this ? I know Xfce dev try to
> follow XDG specifications but I don't really know what do you mean by
> "supporting xdg-utils". You mean link the apps in xdg-utils package to
> the ones proposed by Xfce to have them implement these methods ?
>

Tha ks for the quick reply.  I have not learned about xdg-utils in great 
detail yet but I think that what programs which use xdg-utils need is to 
have packages identified to execute certain actions such as viewing PDF 
files.  In the documentation that I did find, it seemed that this was the 
responsibility of the desktop to make the connections between actions and 
applications.  I may be wrong about this and that is why I sent you an 
email instead of presuming a bug of some kind.  I am also contacting the 
xdg-utils and LyX maintainers to see if he can give me some suggestions.

It could be that LyX is the first to use this xdg-utils facility and so it 
is not widespread yet.  Perhaps it is not the proper direction to move in 
but at least for now, LyX is not functioning properly.

These are the errors I see in LyX when I try to "View" a file in various 
formats:

xdg-open: no method available for opening 'shibata_visa_2006.pdf'
xdg-open: no method available for opening 'shibata_visa_2006.dvi'


The xdg-utils README says:

     The xdg-utils package is a set of simple scripts that provide
basic desktop integration functions for any Free Desktop, such as Linux.

     They are intended to provide a set of defacto standards.  This
means that:
     *  Third party software developers can rely on these xdg-utils
        for all of their simple integration needs.

     *  Developers of desktop environments can make sure that their
        environments are well supported

        If a desktop developer wants to be certain that their environment
        functions with all third party software, then can simply
        make sure that these utilities work properly in their environment.

Whatever insight you can give me would be helpful.

Carlo


-- 
Carlo U. Segre -- Professor of Physics
Associate Dean for Special Projects, Graduate College
Illinois Institute of Technology
Voice: 312.567.3498            Fax: 312.567.3494
Carlo.Segre at iit.edu    http://www.iit.edu/~segre