GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 379658
Better integration with WINE when opening files in Nautilus
Last modified: 2010-05-28 01:10:03 UTC
1. When you want to open a file on a Windows app via Wine, eg an image in IrfanView, DOC in Word, or PAR in QuickPar etc, when Wine is installed it should show installed Windows apps as options (in its own section to indicate non-native programs) using the Wine Registry (now that Wine is Beta and the API feature-complete). 2. Also, when entering a custom path in "Open Application With..." using Wine, it should open the currently-selected file in the Windows app (ie the filename is passed onto Wine automatically). Alternatively, less intuitively, using a variable representing the currently selected file, or better yet, a tickbox on the side instead; more user-friendly; eg wine "c:\\Program Files\\QuickPar\\QuickPar.exe" $FILE (or tickbox on side with no variable) The former Automatic behavior (without the need for variables or tickboxes) is the most preferable. 3. Finally, when opening a file via Wine, the right-click menu when clicking a file should show the name of the Windows app, not "Open With Wine", but with Wine in brackets after the name, eg Open With IrfanView (using Wine)
I'm not sure I really like the idea, but anyway it should be wine's job to create the relevant entries in the system MIME database/desktop files, so that nautilus (and every other application in the desktop) could read that information with the standard GIO API, not the other way around. Closing as NOTGNOME.
3. Should already be solved above. 1. Is sort of solved in newer Wines as it will add itself as a handler for various mimetypes when an app is installed claiming them. There is some complexity here though because Wine will deliberately never become the default "open with foo" for an application. The reason is that usually the native programs are preferred for opening things over the Wine installed ones (and Windows apps have a habit of making themself the default of everything possible once installed). However, there are cases where a user may want to elevate a Wine app over a native one (eg MS Office for .doc over OpenOffice), or when a user may wish to associate an entirely new filetype with a Wine program. Here, the existing "open with" becomes functionally useless for finding the Wine-installed program. That can't be managed completely within Wine because Wine isn't even being run when the user is making this customization - there needs to be some sort of communication between the two.