Bug#741573: Two menu systems
Didier 'OdyX' Raboud writes ("Bug#741573: Two menu systems"):
> Le mercredi, 9 avril 2014, 15.00:44 Ian Jackson a écrit :
> > Right. I understand that some people don't think the comprehensive
> > menu is useful. However, there are a lot of things in Debian that
> > some people think aren't useful. The usual principle is that if
> > someone thinks something useful and wants to do the work to provide
> > it, they should be able to do so.
>
> I think this is allowed by the patch pointed by Charles, which adds the
> following paragraph to the policy:
...
> As I read it, the complete patch is essentially the addition of a 'desktop'
> menu 'should' and a s/should/can/g for the 'trad' menu. That patch got its
> three seconds within the usual Policy process but got (fully) reverted by
> Bill.
It is the demotion of the traditional menu from "should" to "can"
which is controversial. For the reasons I have already explained, I
do not agree with that.
> > There are significant advantages to use of a longstanding file format.
> >
> > These advantages are more important in the widely-consumed trad menu
> > than they would be in the less-widely-consumed but more sophisticated
> > desktop menu.
>
> Your assertions about how widely the two menu systems are consumed
> seem quite bold to me and are at least not backed by Cyril numbers
> in 741573#35 [0].
By "widely consumed" I meant that a wide range of different window
managers are capable of displaying the traditional menu.
But it seems that you interpreted my comment as referring to the use
of the trad menu by end users, and I want to respond to that. Of
course we don't know how often end users actually click on the trad
menu and use it to find and launch programs. So I won't assert that
it's "widely used". Equally, assertions that it's not used by end
users are unjustified. We don't know how widely it's used.
We do have testimonial evidence from individual people saying they
find it useful, and we have the evidence from the people working on
providing the trad menu that they think it's a good thing to keep on
using. For me, that is enough to say that we should continue to allow
those people who care about it to work on it.
Of course Cyril's message #35 that you refer to doesn't talk about the
consumption of the trad menu at all. It talks only about the _supply_
of menu entries.
Some maintainers want to declare the trad menu obsolete and abolish
it, and have been reluctant to include trad menu entries or have
removed them, contrary to policy and indeed thus sabotaging the work
of the trad menu maintainers. It is gratifying to see that this
doesn't seem to be widespread, looking at Cyril's statistics.
Ian.
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