[Ayatana] Executable file dialog box...

[Luke Benstead <kazade@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

We all know that on Linux any file can be marked as executable and unlike Windows we don't rely on the extension of the file to determine that. But this of course leads to ambiguity when someone double clicks a file from Nautilus, should the file be executed or displayed? The current workaround is to display a dialog box which will leave any non-technical user scratching their heads. 

The dialog itself is pretty confusing and ugly for several reasons: 

* The default action is to "Cancel" which is very likely not what the user wants
* There are two different run options (Run in Terminal and Run)
* The "run" options are at opposite ends of the dialog and not explained at all
* The text of the dialog wraps randomly (it doesn't extend to the full width of the box)
* The user hasn't got a clue what they want to do, if it's a text file they'll probably think they want to "Run" it when really "Display" is what they are actually trying to do

I'm wondering if we need this dialog at all, surely we can code in a little bit of logic here. How about:

If the file is executable and:

1. If the file is binary and the extension not associated to a program, attempt to run it
or
2. If the file is text and has the #! line at the top, try to run it. Add "Run as a Program" and "Run as a Terminal Program" to the right click menu
or 
3. If the file is text, open it in the default editor and add "Run as a Program" and "Run as a Terminal Program" to the right click menu

That way double clicking a file will do what the user expects most of the time, and give the option of alternative behaviour if necessary.

Thoughts?

Luke.

P.S. I'm not totally sure this is the right mailing list for this, but it's a
 user experience issue so I'm guessing so. If it's not the right place, 
please point me to the best place to deal with this, is it worth making a bug report?