Scripsit Joey Hess <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Mathieu Roy wrote: > > It doesn't need to be done in two days, does it? If new packages start > > directly with .desktop and others packages move to .desktop in the > > next year, it does not seems to be an awful load of extra work.
> If that happened then we would, for an undefined length of time that > would probably span a Debian release, have two divergent sets of menus, > with some programs randomly on the Debian menus, and some programs > randomly on the free desktop menus. This would be unusable, and a > bad regression. Evidently, so that's not what is proposed. The proposal is to enhance update-menus such that it knows how to parse .desktop files and feed the information from them transparently to menu methods that expect the Debian native format. Then debian-native menu systems would give the same user experience independently of which packages had transitioned to the .desktop format. Packages that uses the .desktop format natively already have maintainer scripts that know how to translate debianized menu entries into that. They may need some cooperation from update-menus in order to not show two entries for things that have .desktop entries of their own, but that is also minor. > You speak of a transition, but I see no transition plan here. What do you expect from a "transition plan" then? Step 1a: Update menu infrastructure such that packages can transparently supply either .desktop files or Debian menu files. Step 1b: At the same time, update menu infrastructure such that WM packages providing menu methods can opt to receive package data in .desktop format (autotranslated from Debian menu files if necessary). Step 2: Packagers can now chose to supply .desktop files instead of the Debian format, with a versioned dependency on menu. Step 3: After a stable version with the updated infrastructure has been released, the Debian menufile format can be deprecated (should not happen before, because it would make backports harder). Step 4: When all (or most) menu methods have been converted to reading .desktop files, policy can be amended along the lines of "*must* provide a .desktop file rather than the old Debian-specific menu format". Stem 5: Compatibility code for the old format in the menu infrastructure will be kept until it gets too much of a burden to maintain it. -- Henning Makholm "What the hedgehog sang is not evidence."