RE: Help requested: more .desktop files.

[Andrew Post <apost cbmi upmc edu>]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the new GNOME panel's
foot menu applet looks for the binary specified in the launcher file. If
it can't find it, the launcher won't get displayed in the foot menu.

Has anyone considered sending the launchers to the maintainers of each
software package, and asking them to include the launchers in their
packages? It doesn't make sense for the GNOME maintainers to have to
take the time to release a new version of gnome-core just because some
desktop launchers have changed. It makes sense for the GNOME team to
serve as a clearing house for getting launchers written, but it doesn't
make sense for GNOME to distribute them as one big package.

Another issue related to application launchers is mime-type
associations. How is this going to be handled in Nautilus? There are a
few problems with the current system:

	1. There's no consistent mechanism for dealing with multiple
applications 	being defined for a single mime-type. What should the
default be? Should the old file association be deleted or added to? If
this is implemented, it needs to be more intelligent than Windows. The
way I think of it, application installations should only be able to add
a mime-type association (i.e. not modify or delete them a la Windows).
The next time GNOME scans the mime types, it should detect new multiple
mime-type associations, and ask the user what she/he wants to do about
it.
	2. It would be nice if application developers would also write the
*.mime and *.key files for their apps. Why is no one doing that? Users
aren't used to having to deal with this themselves.
	3. There's no equivalent to the *.mime file for application
installations to update GNOME's magic database. CDE deals with this by
allowing you to define extensions and "magic" information in the same
*.dt file. This method makes more sense to me.

Thanks,

Andrew

Alan Shutko wrote:
> 
> Alexander Volovics <awol@xs4all.nl> writes:
> 
> > I hope that sane criteria for inclusion of apps will be applied.
> > I for one would not like to encounter long lists off apps like
> > `Freeciv',`bomber',`xkobo',`Pingus', `Maelstrom', `Xboing' `RH control-panel'
> > in the menu's (even using submenus).
> 
> Well, there's already one criteria there: whether or not you have the
> app installed.
> 
> It would be nice, though, if you could easily turn things off from
> appearing in the menu.
> 
> --
> Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
> 226 days, 56 minutes, 32 seconds till we run away.
> All that glitters is not gold; all that wander are not lost.
> 
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