new dired viewer

new dired viewer

[John Russell]

This isn't so much a bug report as a suggestion.  I just downloaded
emacs from cvs yesterday.  I really like the dired viewer that allows
the spawning of external viewers for certain file types.  However, emacs
seems to have to wait for the process to die.  Is there any way to start
a viewer and then cut it loose?  It would be nice to view a pdf in xpdf
and still be able to use emacs afterward.  Thanks.

John

new dired viewer

[Luc Teirlinck]

John Russell wrote:

    This isn't so much a bug report as a suggestion.  I just downloaded
    emacs from cvs yesterday.  I really like the dired viewer that allows
    the spawning of external viewers for certain file types.  However,
    emacs seems to have to wait for the process to die.  Is there any way
    to start a viewer and then cut it loose?  It would be nice to view a
    pdf in xpdf and still be able to use emacs afterward.  Thanks.

! xpdf * &

is probably the most convenient available way.  I do not know whether
this is convenient enough for your purposes.

Sincerely,

Luc.

Re: new dired viewer

[John Russell]

>     This isn't so much a bug report as a suggestion.  I just downloaded
>     emacs from cvs yesterday.  I really like the dired viewer that allows
>     the spawning of external viewers for certain file types.  However,
>     emacs seems to have to wait for the process to die.  Is there any way
>     to start a viewer and then cut it loose?  It would be nice to view a
>     pdf in xpdf and still be able to use emacs afterward.  Thanks.

> ! xpdf * &
> 
> is probably the most convenient available way.  I do not know whether
> this is convenient enough for your purposes.

Actually, rms sent me this fix which is exactly what I was hoping for. 




How about this replacement function?


(defun dired-view-file ()
  "In Dired, examine a file in view mode, returning to dired when done.
When file is a directory, show it in this buffer if it is inserted.
Some kinds of files are displayed using external viewer programs;
see `dired-view-command-alist'.  Otherwise, display it in another
buffer."
  (interactive)
  (let ((file (dired-get-file-for-visit)))
    (if (file-directory-p file)
        (or (and (cdr dired-subdir-alist)
                 (dired-goto-subdir file))
            (dired file))
      (let (cmd)
        ;; Look for some other way to view a certain file.
        (dolist (elt dired-view-command-alist)
          (if (string-match (car elt) file)
              (setq cmd (cdr elt))))
        (if cmd
            (call-process shell-file-name nil 0 nil
                          "-c"
                          (concat cmd " "
                                  (shell-quote-argument file)
                                  " &"))
          (view-file file))))))