HCI Nerdz
Open-with interrupt added to the repertoire
Default file open has no first-class ‘choose app now’ gesture across major desktops — essay plus docs recipes for Ctrl+double-click and middle-click on files.
Open-with interrupt joins the published repertoire: a proposed first-class gesture that stops default file-handler handoff and asks which app should open this file now.
What shipped
- An essay on when double-click skips the choice
- A docs topic on the Antora hub with implementation paths (Windows AutoHotkey reference, macOS notes, Linux recipes)
Why it belongs here
Stock desktops bury Open with in context menus and property sheets. Ctrl+double-click and middle-click on files are largely unused for that job — and map cleanly to “control the handler” / “alternate open.” The association list already knows multiple apps; the open gesture pretends otherwise.
That sits with product representation and intuition-over-backwards-convention — same neighborhood as pass-through extensions.