On Sat, Jul 03, 2004 at 02:08:24PM +0200, Dominique Devriese wrote: > > The documentation is clear about that: > > > <p> The fields <tt/needs/, <tt/section/, <tt/title/ and <tt/command/ > > are mandatory. Other fields are optional. Custom fields are > > supported, so you can add new fields for you own purpose. > > Right, I must have missed that. How about adding longtitle and > genericname to the mandated list ?
Because they are not mandatory for proper menu operation. > > I don't think it will happen, or even that it is a good idea. Most > > upstream .desktop (outside KDE or GNOME core) are made to advertise > > the software rather than trying to build a consistent menu > > structure. > > Do you have examples of that ? Wouldn't it be the job of the people Consider asciijump as an example. > packaging the apps to fixup their .desktop files ? Then there are no real benefit to use .desktop over menu files if you have to edit them anyway. Experimentaly, people are more careful when writing a new file that when editing upstream files. > > I wonder if it would not be more worthwhile to keep the Debian menu > > as an 'omnibus' menu, and reserve the xdg menu for the desktop > > environnement. This way, the menu would provide a more consistent > > desktop experience. > > I don't really agree with the difference between what you call "the > desktop environment", and other applications with menu methods. In > what way do these categories have different needs ? I have no opinion myself, since I don't use desktop environments. However reading comments about menus, I have seen several kind of users: 1) Users that want a menu with all available programs. 2) Users that want a menu with only 'Desktop' apps, say KDE programs and openoffice.org. They claim that a menu entry for emacs e.g. is useless and confusing for newbie. 3) Users that prefer the Debian menu layout. Having a separated (omnibus) Debian menu would let users 1 and 3 use it, and do not get in the way of users 2). Of course, this is a compromise solution. Cheers, -- Bill. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Imagine a large red swirl here.
