Bug#741573: Proposed draft of ballot to resolve menu/desktop question

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Responding mostly to Keith's draft from debian-ctte.git.


The Whereas leaves out a very important aspect of this.  It is not
sufficient to simply decide on the file format.  The primary dispute
here is not really about file formats.

The trad Debian menu is primarily curated collection of metadata,
reified as entries in individual packages' desktop files.

The trad Debian menu, and the XDG menu files as found in existing
desktop applications, do not agree on either (i) the scope of the menu
(ii) the categorisation of those applications which do appear in the
menu (iii) sometimes, the proper description of those applications.
(Let us assume for the sake of argument that there are few intentional
differences in icons.)

Indeed (ii) and (iii) follow from (i).


So the real dispute is: should the existing application metadata
database (currently represented by the Debian trad menu files in
existing packages):

 (a) continue to be maintained in its existing file format

 (b) be translated to a new and more modern file format
     (perhaps only for some packages)

 (c) be destroyed.

Given that there are people who want to maintain it, I think (c) is
unacceptable.[1]


Ian.