Application category in .desktop files

[Mark McLoughlin]

Hi Daniel,

On Sat, 2005-04-09 at 14:05 +0200, Daniel Leidert wrote:
> Am Samstag, den 09.04.2005, 12:46 +0200 schrieb Daniel Leidert:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Can someone tell me, since when the 'Application'-category is obsolete
> > for the 'Categories=' entry in .desktop files? The main question is:
> > Does GNOME 2.6 require it or is it possible to follow the "Desktop Menu
> > Specification" in GNOME 2.6? Should I better ask this on a GNOME mailing
> > list?
> 
> Hmm. I try to follow the "Desktop Menu Specification", but I see a lot
> of applications, which have a 'Application;' in the Catogories-entry in
> their .desktop file (even in GNOME 2.8) and desktop-file-validate does
> not complain about it. I can also add FooBar; to this entry and the
> validation tool will not complain. So I have to change my original
> question: Should I better follow the spec? Or is 'Application' something
> still used? How is it handled?

	You're right - the 'Application' Category is obsolete wrt. the Desktop
Menu Specification - but you if you want your .desktop file to work with
the menu system in GNOME 2.6 and before, you'd be best to leave the
'Application' category in your .desktop file.

	The reason that desktop-file-validate doesn't warn you when you're
using an unknown category is that it doesn't check that the categories
are known:

  { "Categories", validate_strings }, /* FIXME: should check that each category is known */

	A patch to fix that would be very welcome :-)

Cheers,
Mark.