Re: .desktop parser, and xdg basedir api

[Ray Strode <halfline hawaii rr com>]

Hi Jonathan,

> * There are two major use cases for desktop files.  The first is to
>   read a file, extract some information, and free it.  The second is to
>   open a desktop file with the intention of editing it.  In the latter
>   case, you need to keep all the translations around so that you can
>   write them back.  We've had performance problems in the past from
>   storing all the translations of a desktop file when not needed.  
>
>   It makes sense to provide two different modes of the parser when you
>   create one.
>  
Interesting points.  I think you are right.  Those two use cases are 
different
enough that it makes sense to me for the parser to have options for 
specifying
its behavior.

> * There's one already a parser written in gtk/gtkiconthemeparser.c.
>   You might look there for inspiration.
>  
Thank you.  This parser made me realize a number of things that should 
be done
differently in my code.
  - Conditionally check for LC_MESSAGES and fallback to LC_CTYPE if it 
isn't
    avaiable.
  - get_string and get_locale_string should automatically unescape key 
value's
  - a new function should be provided to get the escaped key values
  - the iconthemeparser has serialization support which my code needs
  - its parsing code was written in nice, short functions.

> * Loading a file isn't the right API.  We need to use this from GNOME
>   VFS, etc, and will need to feed it data.  gmarkup.c has some examples
>   of code you can look at to see how to do this.
>  
Oh I see.  Okay, I'll make it support incremental loading and provide a
_from_file convenience function on top.

I'm also going to rename the data type to GDesktopEntry (as suggested by
James Henstridge) since the code does more than parse.

I had some free time today and I have some free time tomorrow, so 
hopefully I'll
have an updated patch soon.

--Ray