Icon parameters in *.desktop files

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

James Richard Tyrer said the following, On 2005-06-22 13:26:

> But, if this is considered to be a problem, it would also be possible to 
> add an additional key.  For example:
> 
>     Icon=kate
>     GenericIcons=editor,text-editor
> 
>     Icon=svg
>     GenericIcons=vectorgfx,image
> 
> then if the user changed the icon with a GUI dialog, the list of other 
> possible substitute icons wouldn't be lost.  The icon loader would first 
> look for the icon specified by "Icon" and if not found would look for 
> the icons in the "GenericIcons" list.  This might also be better for 
> backward compatibility.
> 
> Either way, this also has advantages when running an application on 
> another desktop.  In the first example, if Kate (a KDE application) is 
> run on GNOME, then if there is no "kate" icon because GNOME doesn't use 
> the KDE default theme, it would use the GNOME HiColor icon "text-editor" 
> icon.

A small note: Hmm, the idea is good for _action_, _device_, _mimetype_ icons 
and so on -- they can be easier substituted while an app is running under 
GNOME, without large usablility damage. The question is: perhaps, substituting 
_application_ icon, say kate's icon with gedit's icon, can increase a feel 
that no single Linux desktop has familiar/similar settings.
Many application authors prefer not to change their application icon depending 
on distro and window manager. Remember why so many people know that "large 
blue 'e' icon" launches 'the internet' ?

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam,
  Jaroslaw Staniek / OpenOffice Polska / Kexi Team
  http://www.openoffice.com.pl  |  http://www.kexi-project.org
  KDElibs/Windows: http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=KDElibs+for+win32