Re: Please install: Some improvements to doc-view.el

[Tassilo Horn]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

Hi Richard,

>     DocView and the Gnus mailcap mechanism are unrelated features.
>
> They are related because they do the same job: display non-textual
> formats for Emacs.  They work in different ways, but each can still
> substitute for the other.  If you have a PDF or PS or DVI file, you
> can display it either with doc-view or with the Gnus mailcap
> mechanism.
>
> So do we really want both methods?  If so, when should each method be
> used?

Personally I think a solution which doesn't give the focus to another
application is preferable and thus should be the default.  Gnus cannot
use doc-view since that depends on GNU Emacs whereas Gnus wants to run
on all Emacsen.

> Or how should the user choose?

Juri proposed a very good solution in <address@hidden> and
<address@hidden>.

In summary:

1. He proposed to make doc-view the standard viewer for pdf/dvi/ps files
   and add a binding `C-c C-c' which would toggle between the rendered
   image representation and the text representation just like image-mode
   does.  This way `v' in dired would use doc-view by default and `C-c
   C-c' in doc-view-mode would switch to the text representation you get
   when you hit `v' on a doc nowadays.

2. The Gnus mailcap mechanism could be used for the default command for
   `dired-do-shell-command' (bound to `!' in dired).

I think this is a very good solution and I'm willing to implement point
1 if we agree on it.

Bye,
Tassilo