Re: Debian packages and freedesktop.org (Gnome, KDE, etc) menu entries
Scripsit Bruce Sass <bsass@edmc.net>
> On Tue, 9 Dec 2003, Moritz Moeller-Herrmann wrote:
> > In which format shall application packages store
> > their menu information.
> It doesn't matter,
If you don't think the problem being discussed matters, why are you
participating in the discussion?
> the question should be, "what requires more work: adding features to
> the existing menu system, or changing the entire menu system."
Is there a difference? The changes being contemplated consist in
adding features, and any addition of features constitute a change.
> > Users and developers propose following the
> > freedesktop standard and using this.
> Users and developers are also resisting the proposal.
With few or no actual arguments about what would go bad.
> > How is this logical? How does the freedesktop standard not "gain" us
> > features?
> Because nobody but KDE and Gnome use those features and they
> already support .desktop files.
Yes, but that does not buy KDE and Gnome users anything unless the
.desktop files are in the .debs for the applications they use. We're
discussions how to allow the .debs to contain them without duplication
of information and needless redundancy.
> > freedesktop entry features > debian menu file features
> True, but everyone except KDE and Gnome will toss out the freedesktop
> features. Processing bloated .desktop files just to toss the
> results is a waste of resources.
The fraction of Debian users who use KDE and Gnome is probably less
than 90%, but I don't believe that it is small enough that it makes
sense to oppose on principle their getting the information they want.
> Nobody benefits from the transition... not even KDE or Gnome, since
> they already support the features the freedesktop standard brings to
> the table.
Having a .desktop infrastructure is worth nothing if you dont have the
data it works with. KDE and Gnome users would certainly benefit from
having .desktop files in the .debs of the packages they use.
> I regularily use KDE, UWM, pdmenu, and Fluxbox, I also have twm, xfce
> and mwm installed... processing the menues takes too much time and
> resources as it is, and you want to use up more, for what gain?
Just how much more time and resources would it take to convert
.desktop files to Debian menu definitions? How often does it have to
be done?
--
Henning Makholm "I have seen men with a *fraction* of
your trauma pray to their deity for death's
release. And when death doesn't arrive immediately,
they reject their deity and begin to beg to another."
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