bug#18132: Time for a smarter dired-guess-shell-alist-default? (dired-x.el)

[Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>]

Reuben Thomas <rrt@sc3d.org> writes:

> On Sat, 23 Oct 2021 at 14:57, Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> wrote:
>
>> Maybe I want to open PDF:s first with
>> one and then another PDF reader to see if it looks the same, just as I
>> would be able to from a graphical file manager.
>>
>
> Then you won't be using the default command anyway.

What I want is more or less the exact behavior of xdg-open, but I want
to be able to check the actual command (e.g. "evince", not just
"xdg-open") before pressing RET.

I also want to be able to override xdg-open with customizations inside
Emacs.

> I agree with Eli's reasoning.

Please bare with me as I'm trying to understand.

Is your preference still to just run "xdg-open", as you explained in
your original bug report?  (It was quite some time ago, which is why I'm
asking, in case your position has changed.)

Do you agree that if we could get my idea to work, you could have your
cake and eat it too?  IOW, do you disagree with the approach because you
think it is infeasible to make it work well, or because you don't think
that the feature sounds useful?  Or do you merely disagree with using
mailcap to implement it?

Thanks.