Re: adding desktop files to misc packages
Am Sonntag, den 15.07.2007, 19:30 -0400 schrieb Joey Hess:
> Daniel Leidert wrote:
> > > Until there is one, I don't see any reason why I should accept patches
> > > adding menu files to my packages.
> >
> > The .desktop format is not only about the menu item itself. It also
> > contains the application <-> MIME/file type association information.
>
> Not for any of my packages, AFAIK.
Just grep through /usr/share/applications for the MimeType field. This
is the way to assign your program with the MIME/file types it can
handle. Maybe your packages use the metamail-system in /usr/lib/mime or
maybe you don't need to assign any of your programs with MIME types for
desktop users :)
> > No. The Debian menu entries do not contain the information about which
> > MIME/file types can be handled nor in which menus the entry should
> > occur.
>
> The Debian menu format is flexible, it can have any necessary extra info
> added to it. See for example dwww that uses the debian menu format for
> manauging documentation and not starting programs at all.
However, if you want to make the Debian menu files represent the whole
desktop entry spec, it would IMHO be easier to change their format to
follow the spec instead of re-inventing/completing another format. Just
for the case, you want to know more about the format, see [1]. The only
thing (of a Debian menu file) the .desktop file format currently doesn't
support is (to my knowledge) the needs-key. However, the spec [1]
doesn't forbid X- prefixed self-defined keys (section "Extending the
format").
> > You may be able to create a Debian menu
> > file from the .desktop file. But the other way would be very useless.
>
> We ALREADY create .desktop files from menu files.
Yes. But I think you understand, what I wanted to say. You can currently
just create a simple menu entry, but not a full featured .desktop file,
because the Debian menu file does not contain all the necessary
information. This IMHO begins with the fact, that the created Exec key
value does not contain any of the information you can find in section
"The Exec key" of the specification [1], because the Debian menu files
do not contain this kind of information. But it would be a necessary
info to let other programs like file or web-browsers know, how to open a
document with an application.
I think, this should be clear now, so I will not longer dwell upon this-
[1] http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/
Regards, Daniel
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