Re: GNUstep "open" tool

[Gregory Casamento]

--- Dan Pascu <dan@services.iiruc.ro> wrote:
> On 23 Nov, Nicola Pero wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >> Mac OS X doesn't have openapp (I tried it the last time I had access to an
> OS
> >> X machine), but it does have open. I was rather confused by this, as I'm
> used
> >> to openapp. On OS X, open is how you open both files and apps from the
> command
> >> line, and it does search for apps (and only apps) in the well-known paths,
> >> after the current directory (just like my patch does).
> > 
> > Ok - thanks - Stefan also told me the same - he'd simply like to have a
> > single tool doing the two different things ...
> > 
> > it might become a simple matter of taste then ... but I'd personally
> > prefer to keep them separate ... `real' users are anyway supposed to use a
> > GUI interface to open files and run applications ... while `techies'
> > probably prefer to have more control on what's happening and would prefer
> > having separate commands for separate operations (at least, I do) ...
> > openapp for starting system/local/etc applications and gopen for opening
> > local files.
> 
> making gopen search (for apps only) starting with the current dir and
> then with system/local/... seems a reasonable solution.

This is provided with the -a option under OPENSTEP and MOSX.  I am currently
working on adding this functionality to "gopen."

> You can still have openapp separate and working as expected, and gopen
> will work as before for non-apps, while if you prefer to use openapp
> for system/local/... apps, and gopen for apps in the current dir it
> will still work as before for you. It just helps people preferring to
> use a single command, by searching for an app in system/local/.. if not
> found in the current dir first.

My plan is to make gopen a clone of the open command under OPENSTEP/MOSX.  I
plan to add support for the options "-a" and "-o" as detailed in the man page
for open (see excerpt below):

ARGUMENTS
     -a       specifies an application to use for opening the
              file.

     -o       opens the file (can be used in combination with
              -p).

     -p       causes the file to be printed instead of opened.

     -NXHost  opens the file on the specified host (if its window
              server is public).

> While it makes sense to give a message that there is no such file (in
> the current dir) for non-apps, it's not what a user expects when he asks
> for an app to start, unless it's nowhere present on the system.
> For apps what you want is to run a local copy before a system one (so
> you can test a different version/variant of the app), but if no copy of
> app XYZ is in the current dir and I call gopen XYZ.app, it's obvious
> that I want the system app to start, not that I want to check if the
> system gives me the message about the app not being in the current dir
> (I can check that with ls)

Nonetheless, this is not how the "open" command on OPENSTEP/MOSX behaves.  If
the user types:

open XYZ.app

and XYZ.app is not in the current directory then an error is issued.  If the
user types:

open -a XYZ.app

*then* the app is searched for and started if it is in one of the "well-known"
directories.

> Anyway, I think the patch doesn't affect behavior for openapp/gopen for
> people used with the old way, just adds an extra useful feature.

If the everyone wants this functionaliy, I'll add the patch in. 

> -- 
> Dan
> 
> 
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=====
Gregory John Casamento
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