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

[Thomas Lübking]

Am Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:45:26 +0200
schrieb Ambroz Bizjak <ambrop7 at gmail.com>:

> (Mark, sorry if you're getting this twice, I clicked the wrong Reply
> button the first time...)
> 
> Hi Mark,
> 
> I understand your concern, but I don't consider it an issue.
> 
> There is a downside to your proposal compared to mine, which is that
> it only allows a specific value to one (!) DE. For example, with mine,
> you could have:
> 
> Name=Some Generic Name
> Specific-KDE-Name=Name in KDE only
> Specific-GNOME-Name=Name in GNOME only
> Specific-XFCE-Name=Name in XFCE only

Sorry for stepping in here, but are you really discussing to present
the users different names for applications (not the bins, but we're
talking about joe) under different circumstances so if i'd tell a user
to run "foo" he won't be able cause it's called "bar" in his DE?

The .desktop file already knows a name and a generic name and the
representation (aka "runner") could be smart enought to detect
pseudo doublettes and use the generic name by default and attach the
non generic name  (or, as LLOD the binary) for clarification if
necessary or just to be "honest".

If the runner isn't smart enough to avoid presenting clashes to the
user, that's a runner bug - no matter what caused it in this particular
case.

You're currently only talking about solutions covering LANG=C but you
cannot possibly expect translators to avoid such clashes in their
translations if the application name does not contain some trademark.
Eg. "system settings" as well as "configuration center" could easily
end up as "Systemeinstellungen" in German - simply cause it's (iirc -
bee a long time) the winblows term - some languages might not even
leave any options in some cases.

Cheers,
Thomas