VFolders isn't a standard yet

[Mike Martin]

 --- Glynn Foster <glynn.foster at sun.com> wrote: > Hey,
> 
> > This VFolders stuff seems needlessly complicated and overly
> ambitious.
> > It tries to solve problems that aren't really much of a problem
> on
> > most people's desktops (50 xeyes?) and it does this by trashing
> the
> > simple and well-accepted concept[2] of fs-based hierarchical
> menus
> > that both GNOME and KDE have successfully implemented and
> deployed.[1]
> 
> In an corporate environment, something that both GNOME and KDE [to
> my
> limited knowledge] have't ever really thought about up until now,
> the
> heirarchical menu scheme doesn't really scale all that well.
> 
> > It seems to be a matter of adding bloat to solve a problem that
> could
> > be solved by preserving the current solution (still supported by
> > GNOME2 I assume, so not a problem), a little care[3], and
> > standardising or correcting the right things[4].
> 
> I would hardly called the addition of a standard location for
> .desktop
> files bloat, nor, for that matter, the addition of a new
> 'Categories'
> key in the .desktop file and consequent possible values.
> 
> The backend to parse this information has always been up to the
> individual desktop to develop, in GNOME's case using gnome-vfs and
> the
> .vfolder-info file.
> 
> > Furthermore, I see no evidence that this proposal is being pushed
> or
> > has been explicitly approved by the relevant KDE maintainers (I
> see a
> > couple of side comments in the archives), though I note Red Hat's
> > enthusiasm.  The proposal was described as being only a slight
> > extension at some point, so perhaps the right people didn't pay
> proper
> > attention?
> 
> Yes, this is unfortunate but you can't say that there wasn't
> opportunity
> to give feedback since it was posted on an open list.
> 
> > [2] Look at how much documentation and hand-holding GNOME2 users
> are
> >     needing currently.
> 
> This is a little bit unfair. GNOME 2 currently lacks UI support for
> menu
> editing, a regretable feature that we simply had not time to
> develop
> before the release. As a result, it was neccessary to disable
> normal
> 'user' level menu editing and write a document for the more
> advanced
> user/sytem administrator. This was all done at the last moment.
> 
> > [1] And probably, Windows, the desktop with the biggest
> market-share
> >     in the world does this too.  I know that's not the best
> >     example but Windows is in fact the desktop with the most
> 3rd-party
> >     apps and, ostensibly, they maintain their menus just fine.
> >     Suddenly, Linux has a problem with the menu directory
> hierarchy?
> 
> Windows maintaining their menus just fine? You are kidding, right?
> :/
> 
> > [4] Some of which, such as the list of Categories, can be taken
> from
> >     the VFolders proposal. Perhaps a thing or two could be
> learned
> >     from Windows 3rd party installers as well, ie perhaps the
> problem
> >     could be adequately solved in the package manager/installer
> (RPM
> >     mostly, dpkg seems to have it down pat).
> 
> Let me repeat, the vfolder spec *only* contains 2 things -
> 
> 	a) agreement on a standard location for .desktop files
> 	b) addition of the 'Categories' key in the .desktop file and
> 	   suitable values for this key.
> 
> 
> 				See ya,
> 					Glynn ;)
> 

to add my 2 cents, as the co-author/author of the docs on
menu-editing, I have to say that the design of the menus in gnome2
just makes sense.

far,far better than a heirarchical standard.

It means that someone new to gnome can work out easily how the system
works, and so can tailor it to their own taste

latest version is at 

https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/xdg-list/2002-May/000470.html
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