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+1 on the idea, but a slight change to the implementation
for KDE...

I wrote a detailed bug report below, then discovered the
solution to what I assume is a bug.

Here's the solution: For KDE, use 'exec' instead of
'openURL' as the first argument to kfmclient.

Here's the detailed report:

I tried setting up KDE 3.2.2 to associate text files in the
order:

Emacs
KWrite
KEdit
Kate

I used Control Center->KDE Components->File Associations to
do that.  All of those editors are installed on my machine.

Then I attempted to open this text file:

$ file /home/john/test.txt
/home/john/test.txt: ASCII text
$ cat /home/john/test.txt
hello, world

$

When I open it by clicking on it from a Konqueror directory
listing, GNU emacs running in an X11 window starts up, with
the specified file opened.

When I use your module:

$ python2.4
Python 2.4 (#1, Feb 19 2005, 23:54:54)
[GCC 3.3.2 20031218 (Gentoo Linux 3.3.2-r5,
propolice-3.3-7)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.
>>> import desktop
>>> desktop.open("/home/john/blocking.txt")
>>>

...it opens in Konqueror with some embedded editor (KEdit or
KWrite, I assume), not directly in any of the editors I
specified, and certainly not in emacs.

Same applies if I use a URL:

>>> desktop.open("file:///home/john/test.txt")


This doesn't seem to be the intended behaviour of your module.