Re: Menu icons for packages
On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 01:22:07PM +0000, tim hall wrote:
> I've been keeping an eye on the situation with regards to icons in menu
> entries for A/DeMuDi - The multimedia CDD. Most of you have read this before,
> I apologise for not being used to the Debian mailing lists, I'm not
> subscribed, so off-list replies will be appreciated. I hope I've actually
> sent this to the right list this time.
Hello Tim,
You might consider sending that to menu@packages.debian.org. Fortunately
this is me and I read debian-policy.
> My intention is to contact all the maintainers of apps included in DeMuDi that
> don't appear to have icons and encourage them to include them - Most of this
> needs to happen upstream, otherwise the distro will become full of temporary
> hacks. Part of the hiatus has been caused by my realisation that Debian icon
> policy is rather unclear.
After reading your email, I am not sure if you have checked the latest
version of the menu manual. I have attempted to clean up the menu icon
recommendation, so you should check it:
<http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/menu.html/>
> This is an open posting that I'm intending to send to all maintainers of
> multimedia packages that don't appear to have icons. Please could you let me
> know if I have my facts right. ;-] Does this need to go on one of the Debian
> wikis. [If exist?]. Is it possible / worthwhile / necessary to change policy
> in line with what I've suggested below (fairly close to existing policy). How
> could I change it for the better?
So far the reference document for icon is the Debian menu manual.
I would be happy to here your comments.
> """
> Many people have never been happy with the icons provided by debian.
> There are not enough of them, they are inconsistent in style, and the
> low resolution and limited colors make them look like escapees from
> 1989. Lots of users don't bother with them.
>
> Debian needs a consistent policy on where icons go - the icon policy is still
> "something to be addressed" in future Policy weeklys; however, the
> few policy weeklys published since then don't seem to address it at
> all.
> """
what is 'Policy weeklys' ?
> ?package(ecasound2.2):needs=text section=Apps/Sound\
> title="ecasound2.2" command="/usr/bin/ecasound -c" \
> icon="/usr/share/pixmaps/ecasound.xpm" \
> icon16x16="/usr/share/pixmaps/eca_16.xpm" \
> icon32x32="/usr/share/pixmaps/eca_32.xpm"
>
> You may also want to include a .desktop file using the freedesktop.org defined
> Desktop Entry Standard. [I don't know enough about this yet.]
The Debian menu policy does not cover .desktop.
> 1. The icons should be in XPM format. Icons may also be provided in .PNG
> format for future compatibility with freedesktop.org standards.
What does mean the second sentence?
> 2. The icons (.XPMs) may not be larger than 32x32 pixels, although smaller
> sizes are ok. 48x48 or even larger may be acceptable for .PNGs. This
> restriction applies only to icons referenced
> from /usr/lib/menu/<package-name> for application menus.
> [KDE and GNOME seem to use 16x16 icons which requires an icon16x16 entry in
> the package's /usr/lib/menu file. It is possible to provide both 16x16 and
> 32x32 pixel icons using the variables icon16x16 and icon32x32 so that the
> user can configure menu to use one or the other.]
Note that it is OK to use icons smaller than 32x32 pixels, so 16x16 is
OK.
> Additionally:
>
> Apparently it's also possible to specify an icon for a sub-menu. However, if
> each package would supply its own icons for the sub menus we can never be
> sure that the icon files are available. Thus, only the menu package is
> allowed to specify icons for sub menus. The syntax for this is:
>
> X11 Apps menu/apps /usr/share/pixmaps/icon.xpm "Editors"
This is outdated: the current menu manual read:
3.9. Entries for menu sections.
-------------------------------
It is possible to add entries for menu sections, but it is not
mandatory since section entries are created automatically. However,
this allows to specify fields for sections like `icon' and `sort'.
The syntax for menu sections entries is the same as for regular
entries, the `section' field holding the name of the parent section.
For example
?package(local.games): needs="text" title="Games" section="/" sort="001"
will sort `Games' first.
> The other problem specific to A/DeMuDi is that having an independent top-level
> 'Sound' or 'Audio' menu section breaks Debian Menu Policy.
What is exactly the problem ? It is obvious that Debian and DeMuDi needs
different menu policies. Do you need a feature so that menufiles can
specify both a Debian Menu Policy compliant section and a Demudi section ?
I think you can do that using translate_menus (translate
demudi->section).
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org> (Debian menu maintainer)
Imagine a large red swirl here.
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