Gimp vs GNU Image Manipulation Program

[Nils Philippsen]

On Wed, 2008-03-26 at 12:32 +0100, Martin Sourada wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-03-26 at 10:49 +0100, Nils Philippsen wrote:
> > On Tue, 2008-03-25 at 17:06 +0100, Robi wrote:
> > > So why don't you just put:
> > > "GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)", "Internet messenger (Pidgin)"
> > > etc.... Everybody happy, right?
> > 
> > Weeell. This would mean that somebody would have to whip the GNOME panel
> > into shape first so that it actually displays "Generic Name (Name)".
> > Then everybody and their uncle would have to fix desktop files which
> > have generic names as "Name" to work around that deficiency. Kind of a
> > catch-22 if you ask me. Perhaps we should propose that as a feature for
> > F10.
>  From a quick look into my menu it seems like now most of the software
> installed in gnome by default use "Name Generic Name" in their desktop
> files (like Epiphany Web Browser), which I think is the best way to do
> that. But I am well aware that other people might think otherwise.

The bad thing is that this is often done by having "Name=Name
GenericName" and having no GenericName instead of keeping those
separate. We really should get that situation fixed for F10, i.e. so
that the desktop files use Name, GenericName consistently (as per spec)
and the desktop environments (i.e. panels e.a.) use these as per spec.

> The problem with GIMP is however that GNU Image Manipulation Program is
> not a generic name but it's full name (GIMP is just an acronym). And
> while the long name is quite suited for standalone usage (i.e. without
> the generic name part displayed) GIMP might be better for the long
> variant, though I am not certainly sure what would its generic name be,
> perhaps "Raster Graphics Editor" (following the example of "Inkscape
> Vector Graphics Editor").

I've just talked to upstream about this and they're not too happy about
(ab)using the system with "Name=GIMP" and "GenericName=GNU Image
Manipulation Program". Perhaps the spec should be extended to have an
AbbreviatedName key, so gimp.desktop could have:

...
AbbreviatedName=GIMP
Name=GNU Image Manipulation Program
GenericName=Image Manipulation Program
Comment=Manipulate your images
...

GenericName could even be left empty as it's a subset of Name. The menus
could then have it (based on if the user prefers short or long names)
like this:

Name/AbbreviatedName (GenericName)

or alternatively (if there is not GenericName)

Name/AbbreviatedName

and the comment as the tooltip of the menu entry. This would even work
with legacy (Name and GenericName combined into Name) desktop files.

> But I agree with Nicu that the most important thing is consistency. It
> indeed would make sense to propose that as a feature for F10, regardless
> which format for display we decide to use... And if such a feature would
> be indeed proposed, I think it should be worked on with upstream as much
> as possible.

Yes.

Nils
-- 
     Nils Philippsen    /    Red Hat    /    nphilipp at redhat.com
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
 Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."  --  B. Franklin, 1759
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