more on the kmenu, yay!

[Stephan Kulow]

Am Dienstag, 6. September 2005 23:47 schrieb seele at obso1337.org:

> > It's not just the distributions, it's also the number of applications
> > installed in whatever distribution that can change the look of the menu.
> 
> the number of applications and the type of applications which show up in
> kmenu also pose a problem.  there are applications which have a strict
> document relationship such as KPDF.  however since there is no other way
> for average users to get a definitive list of applications, this is more
> difficult to address early on.
I just don't see a reason why they would care as long as their PDF are rendered
reliable. And if they are not rendered perfectly, I guess they would look for KPDF
(assuming for a second, the name of the applications wouldn't ring a bell :)
> 
> 
> > SUSE's KDE has some improvements there as it tries to reduce the number of
> > hierarchies in a default installation and only in areas where you install
> > additional software (Development for me, will be different for others) you
> > get deeper hierarchies.
> 
> ah yes, but suse also has the issue of reorganizing the hierarchy possibly
> every time you install an application..
I wouldn't say it's reorganizing. It's folding up, yes - but one death you always have 
to die ;)
And then again, installing applications is not considered a task as frequent as starting 
applications.
> 
> 
> >> * what distros want to participate in a trial kmenu reorganization?
> > I'll gladly give you feedback on any change you suggest would affect the
> > menu
> > for SUSE - if that's what you're asking for. We can also easily provide
> > several versions of the package that does the menu organization for people
> > to
> > try and give feedback.
> 
> that sounds like a good start.  id like to set up a kmenu test and see how
> well we can reorganize it, relabel it, how well it tests, how well it
> scales, and how good it tastes as an ice cream flavor
Whatever you do, you won't beat the Snickers flavor at the Hauptmarkt :)
> 

> so i would contact them to talk about coming up with some kmenu
> organization guidelines?
I think the freedesktop standard even has a organization guideline (even though
they don't name it kmenu there :), but as I said it's meant to differ between
distributions. _And_ it's made up with a huge collection of applications installed
as it was kind of derived from debian's menu system.
> 
> 
> >> * who is willing to assist in translation tests to make sure labels are
> >> universally understood?
> > I'm afraid I miss the meaning of that terminology. I doubt you want to
> 
> for example, literal english->[language] translations dont always have the
> same meaning, so to be truly effective, we would want a native speaker to
> evaluate the label.
Usually the more context you give a translator, the better he will be able to pick
a translation. While for english many experts discuss if the better naming is System or
Computer or Services or whatever, the translator is confrontend with the outcome and
about no information what is supposed to hide behind it. So yes, translated labels
tend to be chosen with less care. E.g. in german we have the problem, that a collection 
of nouns does not really sound good as e.g. "Office" is a really short notion of "Programs 
that are often used in offices" - so German uses some phrase like "Office Programs", but
then again this doesn't fit with "Internet" - which works fine in German.

But the problem of loosing meaning or effeciency because of translations is not really 
specific to the kmenu.

Greetings, Stephan