On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:16:49 -0600 Bruce Sass <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Why not drop the Debian Menu Policy completely? The only sane > > > argument against .desktop is hierarchy support but then the most > > > pertinent complaint against menu is that the hierarchy is wasteful. > > > > The Freedesktop menu has hierarchy support, but it's much more clever > > than the Debian menu's. > > > > The most important argument against it is more about window manager > > coverage. There are a good number of packages with Debian menu > > support and no Freedesktop menu support. > > Neil, > > If by "drop the Debian Menu Policy completely" you mean adopting > Freedesktop's .desktop file format, menu hierarchy rules, and whatever > tools they have for working with menus---sure. From an enduser's > perspective it doesn't matter what lies beneath the menus we see[1], if > you DD's decide the Freedesktop way is the better one for packaging > menu entries then so be it. I like Don's idea - remove the Debian menu from those window managers etc. that understand .desktop files and make the Debian menu aware of .desktop files for those other systems. > 1. Make changes to the menu system to use .desktop files in preference > to .menu files when they exist > > 2. Generate .desktop files from .menu files using the menu system when > .desktop files don't exist. > > 3. Continue using the menu system for window managers which don't > natively understand .desktop files; drop the Debian menu for those > that do. > If you are suggesting dropping the Debian menu infrastructure as well, > therebye forcing the other window managers to learn how to > read .desktop files or convert them into their native format on their > own time---that sounds like a bad idea. True - that is avoidable so there's no need to go that far. > I would think that would be enough to place the idea of dropping the > menu infrastructure in the non-starter category, but obviously it isn't > because "window manager coverage" is an issue. If the current Debian Menu Policy is rewritten along the lines set out in Don Armstrong's email, that is fine with me. > [2] it has been awhile since I used Gnome but their menus used to be > slower than KDE's, KDE's have gotten slower (and take up more HDD > space, perhaps a consequence of the Freedesktop related stuff added to > the menu subsystem and maybe why there has been a push to swith > to .desktop files)... but the menus I get with UWM are always very fast Depends what else has been happening on the machine - the .desktop based menus load very quickly if there is sufficient cache. The first time I view either menu, I get the same delay on this amd64 box, it appears to be the icons that are the cause of the delay, not the source of the textual data. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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