[Fwd: Re: Gnome Icons, Gnome/KDE Menus need improvement]

[Seth Nickell]

On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 16:51 -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 15:08, Seth Nickell wrote:
> > Upstream GNOME and KDE should include both Name and GenericName tags,
> > but the reason is so they are translated so upstream distributors can
> > easily choose whether to use the Branded Name[TM] or the GenericName for
> > a particular item.
> 
> Keep in mind, we don't have a way at the moment to toggle whether to use
> Name or GenericName on a per-.desktop-file basis. We'll need to engineer
> a way to do this.
> 
> The simplest hack of course is to just munge GenericName over the top of
> Name using desktop-file-install.

I was sort of assuming that as the status quo. If the translation is in
the desktop file, we can figure out something to do with it.... at least
it gives us options if upstream includes both.

> Also, as an aside, I don't think the HIG is very clear on when to use
> "Web Browser" and when to use "Foo Web Browser" ... your mail implies
> this is a "desktop core" vs. "not core" kind of line, the HIG with
> Bryan's revisions implies it's "whether there are multiple
> alternatives," etc.
> 
> The HIG should document unambiguously what 3rd party, upstream, and ISV
> app developers should put in the .desktop file...

Bryan & I will work on this... but it can't be unambiguous. As with most
design issues, we can give guidelines and factors to consider, but a lot
of it comes down to common sense. Unfortunately common sense is
somethings ISVs don't display when you give them an opportunity to add
more branding :-P Still, it would be hard for me to write a guideline on
why we should put "Coca Cola" in the menus, but not "Safeway
Select" (make up some market saturation point at which you flip to using
a branded name?!?).

> Another issue we need to address is getting this name consistent across
> the package manager, the .desktop file, and what's displayed in the app
> itself (titlebar, about dialog), currently these are not consistent.
> Some kind of automated relationship between .desktop file and package
> manager / installer display would be good. We could potentially have the
> libraries automatically g_set_application_name() from the .desktop file,
> also.

That's a concern I share.

-Seth