Many times I would like to open multiple files in a single application
instance.  For example, I want to open a series of JPG files in one instance of
Gimp, not a whole series of Gimps.  Nautilus does not appear to be able to do
this.

I think what Nautilus needs is the capability of opening multiple files in a
single instance of an application (i.e. xmms *.mp3).  This should probably be
stored in the MIME info, specific to each application.  If the application can
support multiple filenames passed to it, then this would/should be the
default.   There should also exist the capability to open each file in a
separate instance.  This would appear in the right-mouse menu.  So the default
action would be to open them all in a single application, but another
right-mouse menu pick would say what it currently does, "Open in XX windows".



------- Additional Comments From darin@bentspoon.com 2001-01-17 11:08:36 ----

There's a flag in the MIME database to say that files should be opened this way, but 
it's not implemented it seems.



------- Additional Comments From sullivan@eazel.com 2001-01-30 11:27:03 ----

Darin is right. Maciej put a boolean into the application description in
gnome-vfs as a way to specify that an application could theoretically support
opening multiple files at once, but this boolean is not examined anywhere.



------- Additional Comments From rebecka@eazel.com 2001-01-30 11:41:57 ----

In the star trek future, it might also be nice to have a future feature along
these lines where we opened in an alreaady running version of the application,
rather than opening a new instance of the application.  Netscape and emacs both
support this sort of request, for example.




------- Additional Comments From sullivan@eazel.com 2001-01-30 12:08:14 ----

Rebecka's comment matches follow-up bug 46150. Also see bug 46151, which is
closely related to this one.

This already works correctly for cases where (1) the application by default
finds and uses an existing copy of itself when given a new file, and (2) the
application in question is the default way to open the given file. For example,
this will do what the reporter wanted:

(1) Right-click on a jpg file, choose "Open with Other..."
(2) Click on The GIMP in the list and then click "Modify"
(3) Click on the radio button choice that makes The GIMP be the default action
for jpg files
(4) close the dialogs
(5) Select multiple jpg files
(6) double-click on one of the selected files. All the selected files will open
in a single instance of the GIMP.

In the general case, this won't work, because applications in general don't look
for an existing copy of themselves when passed a new file parameter. So there is
still work to do here to respect the GNOME-VFS "can_open_multiple" flag and have
Nautilus group the selected files into sets by application, and just invoke the
application once per set.

However, this is a new feature that we won't get around to for 1.0. Deferring.



------- Additional Comments From sullivan@eazel.com 2001-01-30 12:12:53 ----

Oops, I was wrong about the GIMP. My comments about the cases in which this
should already work correctly are true, except that the GIMP is not an example
of an application for which this works now. Following the steps given with the
GIMP will result in multiple instances of the GIMP application.



------- Bug moved to this database by unknown@bugzilla.gnome.org 2001-09-09 20:53 -------