Bug 557335

I will add MIME type audio/x-flac as long as audio/flac hasn't been registered at IANA yet.

By the way, the issue I was reporting is not JUST that it is not available specifically for FLAC files.  The issue is more general than that.  Audacity does not show up AT ALL in the general "Open With" dialog.  Even if I'm attempting to open a text file, Audacity, along with all other registered programs, should show-up in that dialog.  I'm not talking about the context menu that you get simply by right-clicking on a file.  I'm referring to the dialog box that comes-up when you choose "Open with another application".  That dialog box is then titled, "Open With".

I'll attach a screenshot of the specific dialog box I am referring to, although it is from Fedora 11, but it's only for illustration purposes.

Created attachment 386166 [details]
Screenshot of Nautilus "Open With" dialog box (from F11, only for illustrative purposes)

An entry in the "Open With Other Application..." is triggered by something else, though. It requires a field code to be added to the .desktop file's Exec key. For example

  Exec=audacity %F

to mark it as an application that can open a list of files. However, with such a change, Audacity would appear in that dialog also for all other file types it cannot handle. I don't think that is good, if it already is listed in the "Open With" dialog for files types it _can_ handle.

(In reply to comment #4)
> An entry in the "Open With Other Application..." is triggered by something
> else, though. It requires a field code to be added to the .desktop file's Exec
> key. For example
> 
>   Exec=audacity %F
> 
> to mark it as an application that can open a list of files. However, with such
> a change, Audacity would appear in that dialog also for all other file types it
> cannot handle. I don't think that is good, if it already is listed in the "Open
> With" dialog for files types it _can_ handle.    

I don't know of any other mainstream application inside of Fedora that behaves in this manner.  Almost all other applications I've ever been interested in appear inside of the "Open With" dialog, regardless of the file type that is there.  In fact, it's my understanding that that is exactly what that dialog is supposed to be - a kind of "catch all" and last restore to associate a file with an application that is not already there, for whatever reason.

The "Open With" dialog should just list all registered applications in the system.  I don't see why Audacity should be excluded.  If I want to attempt to open a text file with Audacity, I don't see what that should be a problem, when I can do that with almost every other GUI application in Fedora.  I'm not saying it always works in any meaningful manner, but if everytime Audacity supports a file its .desktop file needs to be updated, then it gets annoying quick.  What if I add custom support on my local machine through a module or some other extension of Audacity?  There will then be no method by which I can open that file through Audacity.

The same can go for pretty-much any other application, so I don't see an advantage to ignore this feature.

audacity-1.3.10-0.4.beta.fc12 has been pushed to the Fedora 12 testing repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
 If you want to test the update, you can install it with 
 su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update audacity'.  You can provide feedback for this update here: http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F12/FEDORA-2009-13139

> I don't know of any other mainstream application inside of Fedora
> that behaves in this manner. 

All that don't specify a field code in their Exec= key.

> Almost all other applications I've ever been interested in appear
> inside of the "Open With" dialog, regardless of the file type that
> is there. 

And that doesn't make much sense. To offer "Open Folder" for _a file_, or a "VPC Connection Manager" for an .mp3 file, or "Audacity" for JPEG images is just broken by design. There are also misconfigured applications on the list. E.g. gnome-appearance-properties, and applications without a description. Not helpful.

> a kind of "catch all" 

No, it's a desperate cry for help as in "OMG! Nothing seems to be capable of handling this particular file - I dunno better than to show the user a long list of applications, which can open a file, even if they don't advertise support for the file type". That's broken. It's something that confuses many Win XP users, too. You don't want users to go the trial-and-error road.

> I don't see why Audacity should be excluded. 

Because it will appear in the "Open With" submenu already for MIME types it can handle. It doesn't make sense to offer Audacity for arbitrary file types, such as but not limited to images, .doc files, C/C++ Source files, OpenOffice.org documents,…

> What if I add custom support on my local machine through a module
> or some other extension of Audacity?  

You then add a hidden .desktop file for your extension.

> There will then be no method
> by which I can open that file through Audacity.

There still is "Use a custom command" at the bottom of the same dialog.

[...]

If you have strong interest in this, please get in contact with Fedora people on a relevant mailing-list,
  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo
and report back how they would like Fedora packagers to handle such a customisation issue.

audacity-1.3.10-0.4.beta.fc12 has been pushed to the Fedora 12 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.