PackageKit application icons

[Richard Hughes]

On Thu, 2009-01-29 at 10:07 -0700, Rick L. Vinyard, Jr. wrote:
> So, in essence, what it comes down to is that PackageKit can't handle
> the extra load of (potentially) one icon filename per package, no
> matter where they come from or where the metadata resides?

No, PackageKit can do it just fine (I did this in early prototypes of
the GUI tools).

> That's a shame, because like I said before I think the icons
> significantly improve the user experience.

I agree too. The method you explain about caching all the icons in the
desktop files is tricky. Ubuntu do exactly this, and it causes the
following problems:

* The data is stale and out of data every time a new package is added /
changed
* you have to build every srpm in the archive, unpack the built rpm(s),
search for desktop files and icon names
* you have to use funny metrics to find the "right" icon -- many
packages have many desktop binaries shipped.

So it's a difficult problem to fix. Certainly, if somebody put the work
into pkgdb or something to get this mapping, I would add support for it
in PackageKit gui tools in a heartbeat.

Richard.