Bug#707851: Proposed changes on menu systems (was: Re: Bug#707851: Let's remove the Debian menu from the Debian Policy ?)

2014-01-25 Thread Charles Plessy
Dear all,

there is an ongoing discussion about the documentation of menu systems on the
debian-policy mailing list, which led to proposed changes and it was suggested
to give them a better coverage.

On part of the proposal is about the description of the FreeDesktop menu system
and its integration on Debian.  I think that we have converged to a good
wording there.

Another part of the proposal is about the description of the Debian menu
system.  As of today (version 3.9.5), the Policy gives it a central importance.
But this ignores the fact that on the majority of the desktop systems running
Debian, the Debian menu is deprecated and hidden.  Indeed, in Jessie it will
not be installed by default anymore by the task-desktop metapackage.  Moreover,
in the discussion that took place on the debian-policy mailing list, there was
hardly some support for the Debian menu altogether.  As a consequence, the
current proposition is to remove the description of the Debian menu from the
Debian policy.

The last part describes how to associate media types with file extensions
through FreeDesktop menu entries, and how this system coexists with the mailcap
system.  As the maintainer of the mime-support package, I would be interested
to switch even more broadly to the FreeDesktop system, but did not yet find
time to implement these changes.  Help is welcome !

See http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=707851#270
for the precise wording of the proposal.

I would welcome constructive comments on the patch proposed.  By constructive I
mean focused (please quote the parts you comment), backed by explanations and,
in case of strong objections, some background about what are the stakes of the
commenter in the maintenance or use of menu systems and media types.

Have a nice week-end,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan


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Bug#707851: Proposed changes on menu systems

2014-01-25 Thread Markus Koschany
Charles Plessy wrote:
[...]
 I have read a lot of scepticism about the Debian menu in this thread, and no
 actual support for it.  Perhaps I was trying to be too consensual and proposed
 an over-complicated solution while it is clear that the FreeDesktop system is
 superior.


Hello Charles,

I wanted to clarify that there are also efforts to support both menu
systems and that the majority of games already integrate both.

https://wiki.debian.org/Games/JessieReleaseGoal

In my opinion the policy should at least mention the Debian menu as an
alternative menu system, so that all the effort until now was not
completely wasted. Menu files are easy to write and once written do not
impose more work for the maintainer. If the Debian menu is not mentioned
at all in Debian's policy, people will use this as a justification to
ignore even wishlist bugs for menu files.

Regards,

Markus





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Bug#707851: Proposed changes on menu systems

2014-01-25 Thread Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
On Sat, 25 Jan 2014, Markus Koschany wrote:
 I wanted to clarify that there are also efforts to support both menu
 systems and that the majority of games already integrate both.
 
 https://wiki.debian.org/Games/JessieReleaseGoal
 
 In my opinion the policy should at least mention the Debian menu as an
 alternative menu system, so that all the effort until now was not
 completely wasted. Menu files are easy to write and once written do not
 impose more work for the maintainer. If the Debian menu is not mentioned
 at all in Debian's policy, people will use this as a justification to
 ignore even wishlist bugs for menu files.

Seconded.

-- 
  One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh


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