Re: new dired viewer

[John Russell]

>     This isn't so much a bug report as a suggestion.  I just downloaded
>     emacs from cvs yesterday.  I really like the dired viewer that allows
>     the spawning of external viewers for certain file types.  However,
>     emacs seems to have to wait for the process to die.  Is there any way
>     to start a viewer and then cut it loose?  It would be nice to view a
>     pdf in xpdf and still be able to use emacs afterward.  Thanks.

> ! xpdf * &
> 
> is probably the most convenient available way.  I do not know whether
> this is convenient enough for your purposes.

Actually, rms sent me this fix which is exactly what I was hoping for. 




How about this replacement function?


(defun dired-view-file ()
  "In Dired, examine a file in view mode, returning to dired when done.
When file is a directory, show it in this buffer if it is inserted.
Some kinds of files are displayed using external viewer programs;
see `dired-view-command-alist'.  Otherwise, display it in another
buffer."
  (interactive)
  (let ((file (dired-get-file-for-visit)))
    (if (file-directory-p file)
        (or (and (cdr dired-subdir-alist)
                 (dired-goto-subdir file))
            (dired file))
      (let (cmd)
        ;; Look for some other way to view a certain file.
        (dolist (elt dired-view-command-alist)
          (if (string-match (car elt) file)
              (setq cmd (cdr elt))))
        (if cmd
            (call-process shell-file-name nil 0 nil
                          "-c"
                          (concat cmd " "
                                  (shell-quote-argument file)
                                  " &"))
          (view-file file))))))