PATCH: Menu Spec - Categories

[Bastian, Waldo]

Updated HTML version of the Appendix.

Waldo Bastian
Linux Client Architect - Client Linux Foundation Technology
Channel Platform Solutions Group
Intel Corporation - http://www.intel.com/opensource
OSDL DTL Tech Board Chairman

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bastian, Waldo
>Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 6:30 PM
>To: xdg at freedesktop.org
>Subject: PATCH: Menu Spec - Categories
>
>The menu spec currently makes some weak recommendations with regard to
how
>categories are to be used. The reality however is that for an
application
>to show up in the application menu it must either define its own
submenu or
>use a category out of a small defined set. The menu spec doesn't make
clear
>what that set is although it does provide some hints in the right
>direction. What is also missing is a requirement that desktop
environments
>must continue to support this core set of categories. Failure to do so
>would result in applications no longer showing up in the menu which
clearly
>can't be the intention.
>
>The above situation is compounded by the fact that Gnome based
>implementations only place "Unallocated" entries in its menu if these
>entries list the "Application" category. The menu spec does not mention
>"Application" as category. We can either ignore this and effectively
>killing the "OnlyUnallocated" fallback, or add to the spec that all
desktop
>files should include "Application" as category.
>
>Based on an evaluation of recent versions of Debian, Mandriva, Redhat,
>Suse, Ubuntu and Kubuntu including any single of the following
categories
>will make an application show up in the menu:
>
>AudioVideo
>Audio (implies AudioVideo)
>Video (implies AudioVideo)
>Game
>Office
>System
>Development
>Education
>Graphics
>Network
>Utility
>
>I suspect that the 'Settings' category is also widely supported, on
Gnome
>(At least under Redhat) items marked with a 'Settings' category will
show
>up in a separate 'System/Preferences' menu and weren't reported by
gnome-
>menu-spec-test but as long as they indeed do show up somewhere that
>shouldn't be a problem.
>
>In most cases Appendix A of the menu spec already lists one of the
above
>categories as a "Related Category", however, it doesn't do this for the
>following categories, suggesting that these categories could be used as
a
>category on its own. That's not the case though, when these categories
are
>used on their own an application will not consistently show up in the
>application menu:
>
>News
>Amusement
>Applet
>Archiving
>Electronics
>Emulator
>Engineering
>FileManager
>Shell
>ScreenSaver
>TerminalEmulator
>TrayIcon
>
>I have made a patch for the Appendix A of the menu spec that clarifies
what
>desktop entries can expect in terms of supported categories and what
>desktop environments must support. I will also attach a HTML version of
the
>new Appendix for your convenience in a followup mail.
>
>Waldo Bastian
>Linux Client Architect - Client Linux Foundation Technology
>Channel Platform Solutions Group
>Intel Corporation - http://www.intel.com/opensource
>OSDL DTL Tech Board Chairman
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