Please describe the problem:
I am in Ubuntu, for starters.  I wanted to add a menu item on the main menu (the
lil foot) that would open a gnome-terminal, execute a help for a command, and
leave the user of the item with the help listed and a bash shell prompt.

Sample commands used:
gnome-terminal -e 'ls --help;bash -i'
gnome-terminal -x 'ls --help;bash -i'

The gnome-terminal appears for a millisecond and then disappears as soon as the
command is executed.  Usually this is the desired outcome of the command however.

The alternatives:

Use xterm - 
    xterm -e 'ls --help;bash -i'

Create a profile in gnome-terminal and set the help command to execute when the
terminal is opened using that profile.  You then can:
gnome-terminal -window-with-profile=PROFILENAME

The former makes me resort to another program due to lack of functionality in
gnome-terminal.  The latter lacks all elegance.  gnome-terminal really should
have this functionality.

Steps to reproduce:
1. gnome-terminal -e 'ls --help;bash -i'
2. gnome-terminal -x 'ls --help;bash -i'



Actual results:
gnome-terminal is run, and as soon as the commands within the ''s are completed,
the window closes.

Expected results:
With bash -i it should remain open after executing the first command (ls
--help).  It closes down immediately instead.

Does this happen every time?
Yes.

Other information:
It works in xterm, it doesn't work in gnome-terminal.