Xfce 4.2 : desktop menu buglets

[Erik Harrison]

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 22:39:33 +0200, Danny Milosavljevic
<danny.milo at gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Am Sonntag, den 10.10.2004, 15:00 -0400 schrieb purslow at sympatico.ca:
> > 041009 Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
> > > On 10/09/04 11:05, purslow at sympatico.ca wrote:
> > >> generally, the auto-generated menu is an excellent idea,
> > >> but the present implementation does seem a bit crude & limited.
> > >> might i gently suggest it check  /usr/local/bin
> > >> &/or a predetermined list of common apps via 'which app' ?
> > > nope.  the blacklist is hack-y enough;
> > > i'm not willing to add a bunch of unmaintainable crap to the codebase.
> > > if you want to generate menus based on a known list of apps, try menumaker.
> >
> > so what is the point of the auto-generated menu ?
> 
> That if the distribution is set up correctly, everything will magically
> show up.  (And you can always choose not to use it and use menumaker or
> just menu.xml)
> 
> > IMHO it's not fit to include in 4.2 as it stands:
> > it gets a limited set of apps -- KDE + a few random others -- ,
> 
> Well then it would be best for the apps to include desktop files as they
> should in the first place.
> 
> > is vulnerable to spurious  xxx.desktop  files it finds
> > & misses a lot of important items, eg Open Office.
> 
> huh ? It finds the open office desktop files just fine. (I even tested
> it with them back when we wrote the menu spec stuff :))
> 
> >
> > i can roll my own by hacking  menu.xml  (excellent help: yours?),
> > perhaps by using the menu editor or by using some non-Xfce tool.
> > even a small amount of work in that way will create something
> > a lot more useful than the auto-generated stuff.
> >
> > am i missing something ?
> 
> No, you summed up the current state quite well.
> 
> So, to reiterate, points are:
> - since unix puts executables all in one dir(mostly), there is a need
> for a desktop menu (otherwhise the need itself wouldn't manifest at all)
> - something needs to be done to make it possible for applications to
> categorize themselves (like their directory structure would if there
> were one to begin with), so that desktop menus dont have to guess.
> - that has been standardized quite stable and long now to be by the
> means of putting freedesktop.org ".desktop" files in also standardized
> locations.
> - if gui apps don't add a desktop file, thats most probably a bug
> (probably just a oversight from the author, or they werent common back
> when the project was started)
> - if apps add desktop files and leave required lines out (yes, that
> means you, KDE), that is a bug too and it is already quite hackish to
> remove them by blacklist from the xfdesktop menu
> 
> Now there are two ways to go:
> 1. put workarounds in for all those apps that dont install / install bad
> desktop menu entries
>   * manage blacklists for totally broken files
>   * manage renames
>   * manage tons of mappings
>   * maintenance effort to keep that stuff up to date
>   * add menu entries for console apps, foreign apps, wine emulated
> apps, ... where does it stop ?
> 
> or:
> 2. just have the apps fixed
>   * no maintenance, no static lists, no hacks
>   * takes longer since the apps have to incorperate the fix into their
> release cycle

.desktop files aren't complicated. Distributors can fix them easily,
and provide them for apps that don't have them already. This makes
option 2 even more compelling

-Erik

> 
> I stay with 2., and I believe its general consens to stay with 2..
> It takes slightly longer but it will be perfect and not a horrible
> kludge, and since we dont have time pressure, there is no problem.
> And it is better to have it that way and have users complain (not to us,
> but to the app authors!), since then, workload for creating a good menu
> will be evenly split among all people, and not forced on every desktop
> menu implementation author to reimplement the wheel (or, the threads to
> keep a broken wheel together and reasonably round :)).
> 
> Its just a human-readable, documented, small file per app. Really.
> Shouldn't be hard to add.
> And is more worthwhile to write than yet-another-/usr/bin-scanner.
> 
> And there is still choice not to use the 'desktop system menu'
> autogenerated menu and just roll your own menus.
> 
> cheers,
>    Danny
> 
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> 


-- 
-Erik