Module desktop

Simple desktop integration for Python. This module provides desktop environment
detection and resource opening support for a selection of common and
standardised desktop environments.

Copyright (C) 2005, 2006, 2007 Paul Boddie <paul@boddie.org.uk>

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA

--------

Desktop Detection
-----------------

To detect a specific desktop environment, use the get_desktop function.
To detect whether the desktop environment is standardised (according to the
proposed DESKTOP_LAUNCH standard), use the is_standard function.

Opening URLs
------------

To open a URL in the current desktop environment, relying on the automatic
detection of that environment, use the desktop.open function as follows:

desktop.open("http://www.python.org")

To override the detected desktop, specify the desktop parameter to the open
function as follows:

desktop.open("http://www.python.org", "KDE") # Insists on KDE
desktop.open("http://www.python.org", "GNOME") # Insists on GNOME

Without overriding using the desktop parameter, the open function will attempt
to use the "standard" desktop opening mechanism which is controlled by the
DESKTOP_LAUNCH environment variable as described below.

The DESKTOP_LAUNCH Environment Variable
---------------------------------------

The DESKTOP_LAUNCH environment variable must be shell-quoted where appropriate,
as shown in some of the following examples:

DESKTOP_LAUNCH="kdialog --msgbox"       Should present any opened URLs in
                                        their entirety in a KDE message box.
                                        (Command "kdialog" plus parameter.)
DESKTOP_LAUNCH="my\ opener"             Should run the "my opener" program to
                                        open URLs.
                                        (Command "my opener", no parameters.)
DESKTOP_LAUNCH="my\ opener --url"       Should run the "my opener" program to
                                        open URLs.
                                        (Command "my opener" plus parameter.)

Details of the DESKTOP_LAUNCH environment variable convention can be found here:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2004-August/004489.html

Detect the current desktop environment, returning the name of the
environment. If no environment could be detected, None is returned.

Return whether the current desktop supports standardised application
launching.

Open the 'url' in the current desktop's preferred file browser. If the
optional 'desktop' parameter is specified then attempt to use that
particular desktop environment's mechanisms to open the 'url' instead of
guessing or detecting which environment is being used.

Suggested values for 'desktop' are "standard", "KDE", "GNOME", "XFCE",
"Mac OS X", "Windows" where "standard" employs a DESKTOP_LAUNCH environment
variable to open the specified 'url'. DESKTOP_LAUNCH should be a command,
possibly followed by arguments, and must have any special characters
shell-escaped.

The process identifier of the "opener" (ie. viewer, editor, browser or
program) associated with the 'url' is returned by this function. If the
process identifier cannot be determined, None is returned.

An optional 'wait' parameter is also available for advanced usage and, if
'wait' is set to a true value, this function will wait for the launching
mechanism to complete before returning (as opposed to immediately returning
as is the default behaviour).

Decide which desktop should be used, based on the detected desktop and a
supplied 'desktop' argument (which may be None). Return an identifier
indicating the desktop type as being either "standard" or one of the results
from the 'get_desktop' function.

Return whether XFCE is in use.