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The file associations dialog is difficult to use. This idea is that application category (audio, text, image, and so on) would have a list of file types for that particular type of file. So you could have a list and priority for all image files. Then each individual mime type would, be default, have a list of compatible programs. This list would show which programs can open that particular file type. The order, however, would not matter. The priority of the different programs would be determined by the order for that category.

So for example your image preference might be:

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gwenview
digikam
okular
showfoto
kpdf/kde3


For an eps file, the compatible programs might be (in alphabetical order by default)

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kpdf/kde3
okular


So if you click on an eps file, it opens in okular because it is higher in the list for all image files. If you want to open an eps file in, say gwenview (which it can do, just not very well), you can add that to the list of compatible programs for eps files, and from then on when you click on an eps file it opens in gwenview because gwenview is higher on the image file list.

The list of image file programs would be inherited from its member mime types. So the programs that appear in the image file list will be all programs that appear in any of the image file mime types. If you added a new program to an image file, for instance setting firefox as a program for svg files, it will also automatically be added at the end of the image file programs.

So the image file list would now look like:

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gwenview
digikam
okular
showfoto
kpdf/kde3
firefox


and the eps file list would now look like (still in alphabetical order):

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gwenview
kpdf/kde3
okular


But say you want to be able to open an eps file in gwenview, but still want to open it in okular by default. At the bottom of each mime type is a check box, checked by default, that says "use category program preference" (or something along those lines). If you uncheck that box, you can then set the preference for that mime type by hand so it overrides the category preference. In the list of mime types, those with the check box off would probably appear as bold, differently-colored, or something else to let them stand out.

This is an alternative approach to solve the same problem raised by More options for Default Applications.