Current desktop detection / app access ...

[Michael Meeks]

On Mon, 2004-05-10 at 16:08 +0100, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> 	It boils down to the assumption that:
> 
>   switch (desktop)
>   {
>     case GNOME:
>        do_gnome_thing ();
>        break;
>     case KDE:
>        do_kde_thing ();
>        break;
>     ...
>     case CDE: /* who uses this any more? */
>        g_assert_not_reached ();
>        break;
>   }
> 
> 	is not the ideal way to fix most integration problems and the best way
> often requires significant re-engineering.

	Well - it's not ideal; but it'd result in better integrated desktop
applications - and I don't seriously think that people are going to
assert fail if they can't find a string in a DESKTOP environment
variable; that's just daft :-)

> 	I'm uneasy because I think if we provide some straightforward
> mechanism to detect which desktop you're running under, people will
> tend towards just doing the quick hack.

	Well - is there a better solution ? and/or specifically - how should
OO.o choose which toolkit/VFS/etc. to use ? yes - there should be just 1
toolkit, or yes vendors should ship identical themes (on pain of
knee-capping) but most don't.

	So - the whole situation sucks, but this could potentially make some
situations much less painful / straightforward (as you say). If you're
worried that that will reduce the impetus towards better, more
foundational shared standards - perhaps it will, but it'll also improve
the user-experience in the meantime so ... ?

	Would you accept this in gnome-session ? 

	Regards,

		Michael.

-- 
 michael at ximian.com  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot