Menu spec update (summary; closure?)

[Lennon Cook]

On 3/25/06, Jeremy White <jwhite at codeweavers.com> wrote:
> > I would think that these people would often be using distro-provided
> > tools for package management, so everything just working becomes the
> > distros concern. Users who install non-distro packages usually have to
> > put up with other things anyway.
>
> Sorry; I just cannot let that comment pass.
>
> The reason users have to 'put up with other things', is because
> it has been virtually impossible to build a 'non-distro' package
> that behaves in a rational fashion.  That is exactly the problem
> I would like to solve.
>
> Making this the users problem is just not an interesting option, IMO;
> that's what we have today, and it stinks.
Sorry, I should have been clearer here. My point was not 'this is the
users problem', but that it is a wider problem than can be solved in
the menu spec, and is - IMO - not a problem that should be solved in
several places. The right solution would be a distro that allows
non-distro packages to remain sane. The menu spec can offer at best a
partial solution, and IMO attempting to fix what is essentially a
package-management problem ("you didn't install this via our system,
therefore random things will happen to it") in a spec concerning a
data format problem ("where should I look for information to go in my
menus, and what will it look like") is wrong.

--
Lennon Victor Cook
"He who receives an idea from me receives without lessening, as he who
lights his candle at mine receives light without darkening" - Thomas
Jefferson