File type association

[amueller]

It would be great if double click on a notebook would open a notebook for "all OSs".
There seems to be an issue for linux (?) #1922.

I think Windows is actually more important, as windows users typically work more gui-driven.
Is it possible to associate file-types via the conda (or even the pip) package?

[takluyver]

Have you had a look at nbopen?

I don't think we can associate file types directly on installing a pip/conda package, because it requires changes outside the environment those tools install to.

[amueller]

I have not.
I'm looking for a way to make it easier for first-time jupyter users to follow a tutorial.
Anything from the console won't really help the windows users, and installing an additional package that's not included in Anaconda also makes it harder.

The change proposed in #1922 seems to make a change outside the environment, right? Is that considered "dirty"? I guess I'll open a ticket at anaconda and see if we could change it there - it does put stuff in the .rc file and into the start menu...

[takluyver]

We may provide the necessary data, but I don't think we'll ever make it so that a pip install sets up the association automatically. What happens if you install it in multiple environments? It's going to get confusing. Anaconda might; that has the notion of a defined 'root environment'. Though it could still get confusing if you install two copies of Anaconda.

[amueller]

Yeah if you install two copies of anaconda, I think a bunch of things might be confusing (you change the bin PATH on install usually).

I usually try to report issues in the most upstream place possible, but I agree with you that you might not be the right place to solve this issue.
Feel free to close or keep (to track possible solutions for opt-in solutions).

[gnestor]

I should add that nteract, being a desktop app, provides this functionality.

[gnestor]

I'm going to close this but let us know if you figure out a way to enable this 👍