Windows Integration for context menu "Open"

For any file extensions that you have designated, Preferences > Windows Integration currently lets you assign Komodo IDE as the application that runs and opens a file with that extension when you right-click on the file in the Windows File Explorer context menu and choose the new menu entry “Edit”. But this is not the default action when you double-click on the file; in that case, the action is to run whatever application has been assigned to the “Open” context menu item. This may be suboptimal for most users, because when double-clicking on a file, they typically want to open that file for reading and editing in their favorite editor.

This new feature would expand the capabilities of the Preferences > Windows Integration so that you could optionally assign Komodo IDE as the application that runs for the “Open” action and menu item (i.e., the true default) without having to go into the Windows Control Panel and assign Komodo IDE for each individual extension, which can be tedious if you have a lot of them. This new feature could be implemented as a new entry field similar to the existing one and/or there could be a radio button below that entry field and above the “Add” and “Delete” buttons, which would allow you to designate whether you want the settings to apply to the “Edit” or the “Open” actions and menu items. Also, it would be good if the user interface be updated to make it clear which of the two context menu actions were being affected. Currently the text “Make Komodo the default editor for these extensions” does not clarify that it applies to just the “Edit” action and not the default action when the user double clicks on the file.

Thanks for moving this here @mjross.

You know my thoughts on this. An editing program should not be setting the Open Association in my opinion.

I don’t think we should be supporting a workaround for other programs setting the Open Association that shouldn’t have set it.

  • Carey

I don’t see why an editing programs shouldn’t be set to open .py, .php, etc files. What else would be used to open these? The actual interpreter?

I think it would be good to have the user choose this though. Have checkboxes that let them choose what Komodo will be set to.