Menu Policy - please read if you maintain a package with a .desktop file in it!

alan alan at clueserver.org
Fri May 14 00:04:38 UTC 2004


On Thu, 13 May 2004, Chris Adams wrote:

> Once upon a time, Seth Nickell <snickell at redhat.com> said:
> > 3) The default packages in the  package sets (in the comps file) may not
> > include any applications that are functional duplicates. In other words,
> > if the user clicks all the package sets in the installer (other than
> > everything), they should not end up with two web browsers or two
> > spreadsheets in the menus. To give a hypothetical example, lets say we
> > shipped Gnumeric as one of the default apps in the "Office" package set.
> > In this case OpenOffice.org Calc should not show up in the menus, even
> > if the openoffice.org package is installed (presuming we install the
> > rest of openoffice by default). One way to address this would be to
> > include a separate "openoffice.org-calc" package that simply installs
> > a .desktop file.
> 
> I understand trying to make things simpler, but I also have a problem
> with this.  I will sometimes intentionally install multiple things (like
> OOo and Gnumeric), with the intention of checking them both out to see
> which one I like (or does what I want) better.  I install both from the
> regular install menu in anaconda; with your rule above, I wouldn't end
> up with both in the desktop menus that way.

There is also the issue of where one app provides functionality that 
another does not.

An example (but not part of Fedora core) is Xine v.s. Mplayer.  I have 
various files that one will play and not the other.  When one does not 
work, I try the other.

The Highlander approach ("There can only be one!") is a bad way to handle 
things.  Not something to lose ones head over...






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