Proposal: /etc/friendlynames

[Number Six <40311.nospam@comcast.net>]

Proposal, additions to Policy and changes to dpkg:

(1) Add to policy: all package names must be nongeneric [1].

(2) Add to policy: all new binary names must be nongeneric.
    Historical generic names ("file", &c.) are grandfathered in.
    Where possible, upstream packages should be patched to create
    nongeneric binaries (e.g., "imagemagick-display", 
    "gnustep-viewpdf").

(3) Add /etc/friendlynames and update-friendlynames to dpkg, which
    works similar to /etc/alternatives except applications sharing
    names are not expected to provide similar functionality or
    accept identical arguments.

(4) Heavily-favor well-established names (e.g, "display" for their
    traditional applications.)

(5) Where possible, patch scripts to refer to the unambigious names.

(6) Where difficult to find all references, do not support bugs arising
    from unusual remappings of friendly names.  If you want to be wierd,
    that's on you.

Benefits:

* Menu launchers could have generic icons to launch "word-processor", 
"calculator", "graphics-editor", "contact-manager".  Deep integration is 
not expected: just launch the app with no arguments.

* All users across multiple systems have a consistent interface for 
making sure friendly-names are consistent.

Risks:

* People depend on the friendlynames in their scripts, users change 
them, scripts break.  Mitigation: provide recommendations for 
friendlynames, identify names which are safe to remap, and don't support 
adventurous users whose system break.