autostart spec updates/extensions

[Bastian, Waldo]

>> >> 7. XSMP
>> >>
>> >> Given that XSMP and autostart are closely tied together, and given
>> >> that XSMP is annoyingly underspecified, it seems to me like it
might
>> >> be nice to put some XSMP clarifications into the autostart spec
>> >> (though maybe others would feel that this is just as out of place
as
>> >> the autorun stuff?)
>> >
>> > Makes more sense to clarify the spec somewhere else, IMHO. We
already
>> > have something similar for the X clipboard:
>> > 	http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards_2fclipboards_2dspec
>>
>> Yes, that was the sort of thing I was imagining. Just wasn't sure if
it
>> would make sense to have it as part of the autostart spec.
>
> The autostart spec should first define its relation to XSMP. Which
usage
>cases for autostart do you see besides initializing/launching desktop
>components? And of course, hacked in manual session management in apps
that
>looks a lot like what XSMP should do?

I think the main use cases for autostart are for things that dock into
the panel on one hand and daemon components of applications on the
other, essentially the kind of functionality that KDE applications use
KDED components for. XSMP isn't particular useful for any of this
because the whole process of becoming and staying part of a XSMP session
is way too fragile.

>> There are also some XSMP extensions I'd like to propose at some
point.
>> (Eg, a property to specify whatever we decide on for priority or
phase,
>> and a property to specify the application's .desktop file, so the
>> session manager can get an icon and a localized name for the app.)
>>
>> > I have another question: should a .desktop file in
.config/autostart/
>> > be able to depend on the content of another one in
>> > /etc/xdg/autostart?
>>
>> The spec says no, you only look at the file in the highest-priority
>> directory, and ignore the other one completely. So if you create a
>> personal autostart file that's a modified version of a global one,
you
>> should copy the entire .desktop file and make the changes you want,
>> rather than only writing out the diffs.
>
> As already mentioned, that seems very wrong.

I think it's a very sensible approach. KDE writes out partial changes
for its panel buttons and that causes major problems, the problem isn't
so big with autostart files, but still it makes things a whole lot more
complicated for hardly any gain.

Cheers,
Waldo