Great feedback. Most of this seems to be in line with tasks and prioritization on http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/PortlandIntegrationTasks
Can you expand on the use case for "Interface with e-mail client"? Is there specific functionality you are looking for beyond "start an e-mail composer for this mailto: URL" ? Can you explain the use cases for the wallpaper and screensaver? Waldo Bastian Linux Client Architect - Channel Platform Solutions Group Intel Corporation - http://www.intel.com/go/linux OSDL DTL Tech Board Chairman >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:desktop_architects- >[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jeremy White >Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 1:01 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [Desktop_architects] The experience of an ISV > >Hi Folks, > >We're in the process of migrating an application from >Windows to Linux. I thought I'd record our experiences >thus far, and use them as an example of what an ISV needs. > >We have found the following requirements with non obvious >Linux solutions: > > 1. Menu entry creation > 2. Desktop icon creation > 3. Mime associations > A. Launch a url with the 'right' browser > B. Launch an app to handle files of a particular type > C. We don't need it, but it's usually important to > be able to register my app as a mime handler > > 4. Run an application at user login > 5. Interface with the 'right' email client > A. Access to address lists > 6. Launch the 'right' file browser to show files in a folder > 7. Set the wallpaper > 8. Set a screen saver > > >This should by no means be considered a complete list for all ISVs, >but I think it's a good start, and I think useful at least as >a first level checklist for our ISV portal. > >With these, what we have found so far is as follows: > > Menu/Desktop icon creation is manageable. > It has a modern specification that is somewhat well accepted. See > this page in particular: > http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apc.html > I feel that this is pretty good, with one hole in the spec. > I've started a thread here to try to close that hole: > http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2006-February/007685.html > The responses at times made me despair; it seems that some folks > consider ./configure && make install to be the only way to install > software. > Nonetheless, I think this spec is a shining example > of the 'right way' to do things. > > For Mime associations, there has been good work done, but not enough. > Today it looks as though lots of WM specific hoops will be required to > do anything interesting with Mime associations. > The interesting specifications are these: > http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fmime_2dactions_2dspec > >http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fshared_2dmime_2dinfo_2dspec > This might be a useful place for us to put elbow grease. > > For autostart, email, file browsing, and wallpaper interface, no joy. > There doesn't seem to be any kind of standard. There seem to be ways >to do > this for each of the WM environments, but we couldn't find any >organized > or systematic information on doing this. > As an example of a 'good' case, here is what one Gentoo'er put together > on Autostarting: > http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Autostart_Programs > > Setting the screen saver is apparently a nasty political mess. > There used to be one true X screen saver; xscreensaver, and hence, > only one mechanism to build an X screen saver. But apparently > that has now forked, and there are variants for both Gnome and KDE. > It's not clear if there remains one unified way to make your own > screen saver. > > >I would like to see us driving a process to make sure that each >part of this has as good a spec as the one for menus; and at least >a portal that lays things out as well as that Gentoo HOWTO does. > >I'd also appreciate corrections if I've missed cases where a standard >is emerging. > >Cheers, > >Jeremy >_______________________________________________ >Desktop_architects mailing list >[email protected] >https://lists.osdl.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop_architects
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