I'd vote then for that behavior, then. While not ideal, its' at least consistent... at least on the command line. How will it be used anyway? Most likely to view only a handful of files anyway. Then any files opened afterwards in the instance would be normal... or maybe have a File -> Open Read Only option? If one needs to open further non-read only files then could use the new menu option. Just my 2c.
-Tim
Vim - Only accepts posix options, ie they apply to all, once open vim further files appear not to be effected unless vim started as view gedit - no readonly option kate - don't know, I run gnome and kate online docs appears broken (blank page) ooo - appears to apply to all files, doesn't effect files opened afterwards
Poorly documented but mostly similar
Cheers Lex