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Re: [desktop] why kde and gnome's menu situation sucks



Luke Seubert <ls.maillist@verizon.net> writes:
> > In all cases I think it is imperative that all menus available in
> > Debian be auto-generated acording to the installed packages.
>
> Certainly the advanced menu would fit this criteria.
> 
> However, the Basic Menu needs to be kept utterly simple, otherwise, it
> defeats the purpose of such a menu in the first place.

Are `utterly simple' and `auto-generated acording to the installed
packages' incompatible?

Even if the set of apps in a Basic Menu were hand-tailored (as may be
necessary), it should at least automatically remove anything that isn't
installed.

Anyway, I think of a Basic Menu as being more like a filter through
which the normal menus are passed, rather than a totally separate thing.

E.g., adding to the `filtering criteria' I previously mentioned:

   C1. `If there are several apps of type X installed, and one of them is a
        "native" application for the currently running windowing environment
        (e.g. Gnome or KDE), then only present that one, and hide the others'

   C2. If an app isn't in the Apps-for-Dummies list, hide it.

I don't know if a Basic Menu generated by such a tree-filtering approach
(plus things like structure collapsing for sparse submenus) would be
good enough, but on the other hand, it may be, and it would certainly
make maintenance a lot easier.

-Miles
-- 
Suburbia: where they tear out the trees and then name streets after them.



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