XDG Shortcut Standard for the Directory Type

[Jake Gustafson]

Is anyone taking note of this? I believed I used the steps given to 
communicate an issue. Where is the best place to discuss this concern?

On 11/2/22 11:23, Jacob wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've just joined the mailing list. My name is Jake Gustafson, known as 
> Poikilos on GitHub and elsewhere. I have been creating stories, 
> creature drawings, and comics since I was a child. I started learning 
> to code when I was 12. If you look at my profile on GitHub 
> <https://github.com/poikilos> or or a high-level summary on my 
> StackOverflow profile 
> <https://stackoverflow.com/users/4541104/poikilos>, you can see my 
> various contributions in the form of mostly some small python 
> libraries not yet in PyPi and also several pull requests to existing 
> projects, as well as assisting with identifying or diagnosing issues 
> in public-licensed software.
>
> Thanks for allowing me to join the mailing list automatically. I hope 
> this isn't a distraction from the mailing list if my issue is not 
> supposed to be here. The website said discussions about XDG should 
> take place on this mailing list. I hope this is the best place for the 
> technical issue below, since the issue involves the standard itself 
> rather than the software, which seems to implement the standard as the 
> standard stands, from my tests regarding this issue (using 
> desktop-file-validate).
>
> The standard itself is missing a definition of what key is appropriate 
> for the path where the Type is Directory. In fact, there doesn't seem 
> to be any specification of the Directory type in the XDG standard 
> other than that the extension should be ".directory". In fact, there 
> seems to be no way to construct such a file in a way 
> that desktop-file-validate doesn't show an error.
>
> May I propose "Path" could be the key in this case? It seems intuitive.
>
> It may also pave the way for a "File" Type implemented similarly. I 
> suggest adding that.
>
> I have had several uses for such a feature so I implemented these 
> features in an alternative standard called blnk 
> <https://github.com/poikilos/blnk>. If XDG implements the features, I 
> would change my program to match the standard. The use cases are as 
> follows:
> - I (and various tech channels on YouTube) often install GNU/Linux 
> systems on old/new computers for relatives to avoid various Windows 
> issues. Such users don't understand symlinks. Even Mac users don't 
> usually understand aliases (which they are called there and made easy 
> to create like on Ubuntu) from what I've seen. They sometimes delete 
> all of the files from one symlinked directory since they think there 
> are two copies of everything. Having a shortcut that goes to the 
> "real" directory is preferable and safer in this case.
> - In another case, the directory shortcut can point to a location that 
> may not always exist. Even some favorite bars or programs simply 
> "forget" (or hide) a subdirectory of an unmounted drive or remote host 
> upon loading. This is not clear to the user what is going on. They may 
> wonder where the shortcut went or what is happening. If there was a 
> complete .directory file standard, then DEs (maybe via xdg-launch or 
> some new xdg command that doesn't depend on mimetype) could launch the 
> file and stderr could say that the Directory is missing or not 
> accessible. The current workaround is to make an Application shortcut 
> to a directory, but this is not always advisable. I've heard 
> recommendations online saying to launch some particular file browser, 
> whereas xdg-launch would be better. If the .directory spec were 
> completed then implemented be DEs, there would be a clear answer to 
> the question and there wouldn't have to be workarounds or handwritten 
> .desktop files.
> - Perhaps DEs could implement following .desktop files in a similar 
> way to symlinks: to traverse folders while inside of a file/directory 
> chooser dialog box even. That feature is implemented on Windows, for 
> example. That would allow people to have shortcuts in an appropriate 
> place instead of an ever-growing "Favorites" bar in their file 
> manager. Also, the favorites bar gets reset to nothing upon changing 
> to a different DE or upon running a different flatpak. I understand 
> these issues are not the realm of XDG to implement, but having some 
> sort of complete specification for Type=Directory would allow DEs to 
> do whatever they want with it and have a clear way to remain 
> compatible with other DEs in this regard, regardless of whether their 
> implementation involves my wishlist.
>
> Thank you,
> Jake "Poikilos" Gustafson
>
>
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