Re: [desktop] Please read the vFolder spec [Was: why kde and gnome's menu situation sucks]

[Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org>]

Just to clarify: the Categories from the vFolder spec are used for
categorization by the code.  The only part where we differ is whether
an XML vFolder file is used to map Categories values into locations in
the menu hierarchy.  So instead of something like:

    <!-- Accesories -->
    <Folder>
      <Name>Accesories</Name>
      <Desktop>Accessories.directory</Desktop>
      <Query>
	<And>
	  <Keyword>Application</Keyword>
	  <Keyword>Utility</Keyword>
	  <Not>
	    <Keyword>System</Keyword>
	  </Not>
	</And>
      </Query>
      <DontShowIfEmpty/>
    </Folder>

the ClassicCategorizer class uses (abridged):

        elif 'Utility' in categories:
            if 'System' in categories:
                return 'system/utility'+appendstr
            else:
                return 'accessory'+appendstr

where each path component is a <filename>.directory file and appendstr
is the group, if there is one specified.  The whole "DontShowIfEmpty"
stuff is expressed more dynamically; if there aren't any menu entries
located in a part of the hierarchy, that part won't show up.  There's
also some balancing code involved, but that could be used with the
vFolder XML categorizer just as well, or if you want the verbatim
vFolder layout, or even the verbatim ClassicCategorizer layout, you
can switch off the balancing by allowing one-entry menus.  One-entry
menus are IMHO a usability hurdle, but I haven't brought in hordes of
doofuses off the street to test this theory (yet).

Hope this clarifies things.


Chris
-- 
Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org> - http://www.lordsutch.com/chris/