On Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:12:27 -0500 Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> wrote: > > On Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:55:45 -0400, Daniel Dickinson > <cshore@fionavar.ca> said: > > > For freedesktop.org compliant window managers .desktop files under > > /usr/share/applications are considered the preferred method of > > creating menu entries, and these entries are what are used for the > > main menu in these desktops. The problem is that this is what the > > debian menu was supposed to be, but because of this development the > > debian menu is rarely used and not very helpful in window managers > > like gnome, to the extent that downstream ubuntu doesn't even have > > the debian menu unless you work at it. [snip] > > If we already have package maintainers supplying menu > information in the Debian menu format, there seems to be no reason > to ask them to duplicate this information in a .desktop file as > well. It is far better to create the .desktop files as needed from > the menu file, rather than leave non-desktop-environment window > managers out in the cold. Apparently menu-xdg is supposed to do this but does not, or else I am misunderstanding what it is supposed to do. I've filed a bug. Maybe [added] In fact IIRC, menu-xdg did this but got changed because it was creating duplicates in the GNOME menu because .desktop files were providing the same menu entries as the debian menu that was .desktopized by menu-xdg. If this is in fact the case, how do you feel about an explicit policy that menu-xdg is the way to create .desktop entries that are also in the debian menu and file a mass policy violation against packages creating .desktop entries to do what should be done by menu-xdg. You could make me the submitter so you don't have to deal with all the bug reports if you wanted. [/added] it's the .desktop files that shouldn't be there, or that the window managers should be relying on the Debian menu first and not using .desktop as the primary menu. Having two different menus, each of which claims to be the expected place to find things confuses new users, and even for users like me it's annoying because if I want the debian canonical menu I have to use a submenu instead of the root menu for the window manager. (menu->Debian->xxx->xxx). I am unhappy with the default being a menu that is not the debian standard as the root menu for most window managers. -- And that's my crabbing done for the day. Got it out of the way early, now I have the rest of the afternoon to sniff fragrant tea-roses or strangle cute bunnies or something. -- Michael Devore GnuPG Key Fingerprint 86 F5 81 A5 D4 2E 1F 1C http://gnupg.org No more sea shells: Daniel's Weblog http://cshore.wordpress.com
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