KDE and the executable bit

[Martin Konold]

Am Montag, 28. Januar 2008 schrieb Andras Mantia:

Hi Andras,

> It is more about consistency, or are GUI file managers different from
> the shell?

I think the later is the key to the solution. 

If the file manager shall mainly manage files and operate on documents it 
deals with tasks like:

Copy, move, archive, preview, modify, create and delete files/documents.

It is not mainly meant to launch applications. It only launches applications 
in order to allow the user to fullfill one of the above mentioned tasks.

--> Executing shell scripts or python scripts is not a main task of a file 
manager.

Rational: The times where launching a single executable from the (graphical) 
shell in order to deal with a task is very backward. Today either documents 
are handled and the mime-type system launches the associated application (not 
necessarily associated to a single executable) or the user chooses to launch 
the application without a document using launcher/kicker/panel,...

The old UNIX file permission bits (wrx ugo) are very limited and outdated. 
This is the reason why more modern systems use advanced ACLs, resource forks, 
mime-types,.... in order to allow for a more fine grained authorization and 
execution control.

Regards,
-- martin

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