Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[David Edmondson <dme@dme.org>]

On Friday, 2021-11-19 at 01:15:11 +01, Daniel Martín wrote:

> David Edmondson <dme@dme.org> writes:
>
>> Add editor role for PDF files, allowing them to be opened in Emacs via
>> the Finder.
>> ---
>>  nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in | 12 ++++++++++++
>>  1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
>> index f9f0ec0857..bd86a75e79 100644
>> --- a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
>> +++ b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
>> @@ -488,6 +488,18 @@ along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>>  			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
>>  			<string>Editor</string>
>>  		</dict>
>> +		<dict>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
>> +			<array>
>> +				<string>pdf</string>
>> +			</array>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
>> +			<string>document.icns</string>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
>> +			<string>PDF document</string>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
>> +			<string>Editor</string>
>> +		</dict>
>>  		<dict>
>>  			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
>>  			<array>
>
> Thanks for the patch, but by default Emacs opens PDF files in
> fundamental-mode, which IMO is not very convenient for reading PDFs.

I don't see this as a reason not to include the patch. Users are not
forced to use Emacs to open PDFs, so this is only something that will
happen with explicit configuration or selection in any case.

I would also argue that fundamental mode is not a terrible place to edit
PDF documents. It's not a very good viewer, but then...

> It's true that there's also doc-view-mode, but that requires some extra
> configuration.

...doc-view-mode is a *terrible* PDF viewer for larger (1000+ page)
documents, and it is the default if ghostscript is found.

> If someone has configured Emacs to be a good PDF viewer, they can always
> force the Open With dialog to open PDFs with Emacs.

If one wishes to open all PDF documents with Emacs then this is a good
solution. If, as in my case, someone wishes to open some PDF documents
using Emacs, the existing "Open with..." is very cumbersome to use, as
it requires navigating the filesystem to find the Emacs application
every time.

The current Info.plist.in includes a clause that attempts to make Emacs
available as an editor for *all* file types on macOS, but Apple appear
to have discontinued support for this, which is unfortunate.

dme.
-- 
There's someone in my head but it's not me.