Re: .desktop files (particularly if your app is in the extras release)

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Sun, Feb 25, 2001 at 10:19:21PM -0800, Seth Nickell wrote:
> I would like to strongly encourage package maintainers who's
> applications will be included in the GNOME 1.4 release to update your
> .desktop files to include more information than they currently do.
> Specifically, it would be a Good Thing if everyone added a MimeType=
> entry, but I would like to encourage application developers to read the
> spec (the only copy I know of is stored at KDE, but the spec was a joint
> effort) and try to support this seemingly forgotten standard:
> 
> http://webcvs.kde.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/kdelibs/kio/DESKTOP_ENTRY_STANDARD?rev=1.9
> 
> Why? First of all adding a MimeType tag will get your app "registered"
> with Konqueror and the rest of KDE for opening files of that type. This
> means its easier for users to mix and match GNOME and KDE applications,
> a Good Thing unless you are interested in political maneuvering.
> Secondly its generally a good idea to support standards, particularly if
> we agreed to them with KDE long ago and still have failed to support
> them. Making negotiations and agreements towards interoperability means
> jack-shit if we don't actually implement the agreements (and KDE has in
> this case) ;-)
> 
> (the other thing I am wondering is why the .desktop spec is not on
> www.freedesktop.org ?)

Could I add that with the current API the "MimeType" will be forgotten the
first time a user edits an icon.  That is, dentry does NOT support adding
fields.  On gnome-libs HEAD we have gnome-ditem which does, but currently
we are stuck with the stable .....

George

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   She had lost the art of conversation, 
   but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.
                       -- George Bernard Shaw