VFolders isn't a standard yet

[Thomas Zander]

On Tue, Jul 09, 2002 at 06:45:27AM -0700, George wrote:
> > > All the binary names are in one dir and you must make that up to be unique
> > > ... just make up the .desktop file names in the same manner.  It's also much
> > > easier for implementation.
> > 
> > That is what I said, yes. I also pointed out that there are problems with that
> > approuch. Problems many people fall over.
> > And your sole argument is that it is easier to implement?
> 
> No, my sole argument is that it is not a problem.

Well; I do think its a problem, not a technical one, but a beauty and elegance
thing.
In a /bin many symlinks live to thinks like java or vim or gcc etc.
The actual applications still live in their own hierarchy; since that makes it
easier for the user to maintain.  Think about different versions for example.

> You can namespace
> your .desktop files if you want:
> 
> company-or-project-name-program.desktop
> 
> or even:
> 
> GeorgeLebl-MyProgram.desktop

Ehh; so my
    Graphics/Gimp.desktop
becomes
    Graphics-Gimp.desktop

Hmm, your namespacing seems like subdir-ing with a  s/\//-/g;

> > There _is_ a way to do this in a backwards compatible manner and you choose to
> > ignore it since its more work. Hmm, good luck in getting the patches accepted.
>
> It's not just more work.  It's slower and more resource intensive to use more
> directories, since you suddenly have to read and watch more directories then
> one.  And since you can just namespace, having further structure just
> complicates the issue, makes it harder to implement and also makes the
> implementation slower and more resource intensive.

Thats not quite true.  You indicated that for backwards compatability the old
directories will still be used. These old directories will have to be watched 
anyway.
In fact you have to watch your new dir as well, which is not needed if you
just extend the current concept to use your XML submenu structure.

If in the future no applications write in subdirs anymore then you can say 
that scanning a large directory and scanning about 20 smaller directories will 
probably make a difference in startup, but I am not sure that amount will be
a problem, and it surely will not be a problem from the POV of the user that
now has to wait for a large dir to be loaded in his browser if he wants to 
delve in.

Please take note that I like the solution to use a database (xml) that defines
catagories as submenus.  I just don't like the fact that that forces me to 
depend on a graphical tool to view what kind of applications I have installed.

-- 
Thomas Zander                                           zander at planescape.com
                                                 We are what we pretend to be
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