The PIL show() method looks for the default viewer. How do I change this to a different viewer (of my choice)?

[Christian Gollwitzer]

Am 27.05.18 um 23:58 schrieb Cameron Simpson:
> On 27May2018 20:15, Paul St George <email at paulstgeorge.com> wrote:
>> This is very helpful indeed, thank you. Awe-inspiring.
>>
>> It occurred to me that I could edit the PIL/ImageShow.py, replacing 
>> ‘xv’ (in five places) with the utility of my choice and using 
>> ‘executable’ as the command.
>>
>> Or, is this just not done?
> 
> It becomes a maintenance problem.
> 
> Alternatively you could:
> 
> Just write your own show function which accepts an Image and displays it 
> with your program of choice. You might need to write some equivalent 
> code which saves the Image to a file first, and removes it afterwards.
> 
> You could copy the show() code into a function of your own (i.e. in your 
> own codebase) modify that to suit, then monkeypatch the class:
> 
>   Image.show = your_personal_show_function
> 
> when your programme starts. That way the code changes are not in the PIL 
> code.

I think this is a bug/misfeature in the PIL code. On all 3 major 
platforms there is a way to invoke the standard program for a given file 
or URL. On Windows, it is "cmd.exe /c start ...", on OSX it is "open 
...." and on Linux it is "xdg-open ...". That way the file is opened by 
whatever the user has set in his desktop environment.

Technically, xdg-open needs not to be present on Linux, though it is 
usually installed.

	Christian