Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> writes:
> Thanks. I would appreciate if it would be acknowledged, I am a bit academic by
> training...
The proposed ballot tries to clarify the difference between D and AB by
noting:
6. The policy change by Charles Plessy in ba679bff76[1]
would comply with this decision if it were revised to require
that no package provide a menu file when it provides a .desktop
file for the same application.
> I have invested a lot of time on AB as I was looking for a compromise that
> would satisfy broady, but as I wrote more recently, I also do not mind a more
> radical outcome. I would support option D it if we resolve the the point
> below.
We certainly appreciate the work you've done on the existing policy
patch; A, B and D all incorporate that. D goes just a bit further in an
attempt to migrate to the .desktop format
> This is the first half of solving the problem. The second would be to add that
> the "should" requirement of the Policy's section 9.6, paragraph 2, is changed
> to "may".
Reading from the ballot again:
2. Packages may provide menu files at the pleasure of the
maintainer, but packages providing a .desktop file shall not
also provide a menu file for the same application.
Thinking about this tonight, I've rewritten option D as AB + patch.
As you can see, this makes packages shipping menu and .desktop files for the same
application buggy, makes all packages using the Debian Menu System
buggy, and advises that the Debian Menu System be changed to read both
menu and .desktop files.
I think the following version is functionally equivalent to the existing
option D, and makes it clear that we're trying to take your suggestion
and push further in the same direction.
OPTION D':
Using its power under §6.1.1 to decide on any matter of technical
policy, and its power under §6.1.5 to offer advice:
1. The Technical Committee adopts the changes proposed by Charles
Plessy in ba679bff[1].
2. In addition to those changes, the Technical Committee resolves
that packages providing a .desktop file shall not also provide a
menu file for the same application.
3. We further resolve that "menu programs" should not depend on the
Debian Menu System and should instead rely on .desktop file
contents for constructing a list of applications to present to
the user.
4. We advise the maintainers of the 'menu' package to update that
package to reflect this increased focus on .desktop files by
modifying the 'menu' package to use .desktop files for the
source of menu information in addition to menu files.
5. Discussion of the precise relationship between menu file
section/hints values and .desktop file Categories values may be
defined within the Debian Menu sub-policy and Debian Menu
System.
6. Further modifications to the menu policy are allowed using the
normal policy modification process.
[1]: http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/dbnpolicy/policy.git/commit/?id=ba679bff76f5b9152f43d5bc901b9b3aad257479
--
-keith
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