Extending xdg-user-dirs

[Bastien Nocera]

Hey,

On Mon, 2014-03-03 at 16:42 -0800, Cosimo Cecchi wrote:
> Hi all,
<snip>

This diff to the spec isn't very clear:
https://github.com/cosimoc/xdg-user-dirs/commit/29c89e42ec784fd00075b44cdfa459de7aecb1a9

It's really not very clear that the extension files are in a
sub-directory.

<snip>

>         Use cases:
>         * An application (e.g. a sound recorder) wants to save a file
>         in a subdirectory of $XDG_MUSIC_DIR. Another sound recorder
>         wants to save files in the same subdirectory, and doesn't want
>         to worry about the translations for each language to be in
>         sync.

How can sound recorder #2 rely on #1 being present, and having installed
the directory file with the right name? Should common directories be
shipped in xdg-users-dir?

>         
>         * A photo booth application wants to save pictures to a webcam
>         snaps subdirectory of $XDG_PICTURES_DIR. An "user properties"
>         settings panel in the desktop environment allows to pick an
>         avatar picture through a file chooser, which should default to
>         the webcam snaps place.
>         
>         
>         There's a bunch of similar cases, which you can find in this
>         bug [1] where this message originates from.

The original bug is about backgrounds and discussing it with David Faure
and Ryan, we wondered what would happen if the KDE wallpaper panel was
to make it create a ~/Pictures/Wallpapers and the GNOME one made it
create a ~/Pictures/Backgrounds?

How do we avoid the directories being filled up with gunk from running
different desktop environments, or, if we use the same file shipped by
xdg-users-dir, do we decide whether it should be called Backgrounds or
Wallpapers?

We think that, to avoid inter-application dependency, and cluttering
those top-level dirs with more slightly different versions of the same
directory, we should ship the most common directories in xdg-users-dir
directly.

I hope this is clear enough so we can carry the discussion forward a
little.

Cheers