Formal complaint concerning the use of the name "System Settings"

Ambroz Bizjak ambrop7 at gmail.com
Sat Jul 23 20:20:22 BST 2011


Mark <markg85 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a small suggestion on how i think this should be "fixed" (since 2
> desktop files for one app seems just ugly to me).
> Perhaps it's better to extend the desktop file specification:
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s05.html
>
> And i would propose adding 2 entries:
> NativeDE - This one holds the desktop environment name where the app
> would be "native". So GNOME, KDE or whatever.
> NameNonNative - This one holds the app name when it's shown in a
> desktop environment that is not native. When not set fallback to
> "Name"
>
> So for example the "System Settings" app in KDE looks somewhat like
> this in a .desktop file:
>
> Name=System Settings
> NativeDE=KDE
> NameNonNative=KDE System Settings
>
> The same applies for gnome system settings and also for the system
> monitor (that also has the naming issue)
> Isn't this a good solution?
>
> Regards,
> Mark

I think this is the right idea - have a generic name and a
native-desktop-specific name. But I think it could be implemented more
nicely. I suggest the following:

Name=KDE System Settings
KDE-Name=System Settings

Name=Gnome System Settings
Gnome-Name=System Settings

This would be a little easier to implement, and has the advantage that
the non-native name will be used for any DE that doesn't specifically
know about the "extension". For example, in Xfce, you will get "KDE
System Settings" and "Gnome System Settings" without Xfce having to
implement anything; with Mark's suggestion however, Xfce would give
you two "System Settings" until it was patched.

Regards,
Ambroz




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