Re: Debian packages and freedesktop.org (Gnome, KDE, etc) menu entries

[Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>]

Hi, Mathieu Roy wrote:

> Are they strong divergences on the goal to reach and the method to
> follow between Debian and freedesktop.org?

There don't seem to be.

But, assuming that we assume that .desktop files are The Future (they
have technical advantages over our menu files, and Debian is about doing
the right thing), there seem to be divergent opinions on how to go about
actually migrating to them.

We can

1- supply both in our packages
2- write conversion scripts menu <=> .desktop
3- patch menu managers to understand them directly and supply that
   to Upstream
4- write conversion scripts .desktop => menu_manager_of_choice and supply
   that to Upstream

IMHO, -4- and -3- are both good solutions; the choice is Upstream's.
Not doing -1- or -2- until it's no longer necessary because -3- and
-4- obsolete them doesn't work particularly well, and neither does not
doing -1- because -2- obsoletes it.

The reason why it doesn't is rather simple -- a change like this needs
both enough .desktop files, _and_ support from programs, to work.
Otherwise, nobody will switch.

-- 
Matthias Urlichs   |   {M:U} IT Design @ m-u-it.de   |  smurf@smurf.noris.de
Disclaimer: The quote was selected randomly. Really. | http://smurf.noris.de
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