en/glep/glep-0016.txt

GLEP: 16
Title: Gentoo Menu System
Version: $Revision: 1.6 $
Last-Modified: $Date: 2004/11/11 21:30:01 $
Author: Heinrich Wendel <lanius@gentoo.org>,
Status: deferred
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 09-Sep-2003
Post-History: 04-Oct-2003, 11-Dec-2003, 13-Dec-2003, 4-May-2004, 11-Nov-2004

Definitions
============

   *APP*
      A graphical application that should be listed in the menus.
   *WM*
      A program containing a menu manager (i.e. a program that can display a menu, e.g. a windowmanager).


Abstract
========

This GLEP handles a proposal for the following two goals:

* Create a common menu layout, which would be independent of the WM.
  This point is quite important for those people who use more than one WM. 
* Provide a common way to add applications to the menus.


Status
======

Timed out (and now subsumed by the gentoo-desktop top-level project)


Motivation
==========

GNOME, KDE, Fluxbox, to name only a few, have all their own ways of handling
menus. There have been several requests [1]_ [2]_ [3]_ [4]_ [5]_ [6]_ from
users to streamline these menus. Furthermore there are several bug reports
about applications not having a menu entry [7]_, but since there is not
standard way to create such an entry, they are just sitting around in
bugzilla.


Rationale
=========

The idea of a common menu system is not new to the Linux world, every big
distribution (Debian, Mandrake, RedHat, Suse) has such a system. The big DE's,
KDE and GNOME, with the help of freedesktop.org [8]_, are also trying to
implement one standard. That will most likely happen in GNOME 2.6 and KDE 3.2
(Currently they are only implementing different versions of the
desktop-entry-spec, but interpreting it in an incompatible way).  But there
are still many other WM's that currently don't support these specs.  So we are
trying to base our work on the specifications GNOME and KDE are going to use.
(These are no official standards but evolving specifications). This has the
following advantages:

* follow specified standards
* i18n support
* provide the necessary flexibility and modularity 
* integrate with small changes to our ebuildtree.
* support for per system and per user menus


Specification
=============

We are trying to follow these specifications:

* Desktop Entry Specification [9]_
* Menu Specification [10]_
* Icon Theme Specification [11]_

There are two libraries that offer an API to these specifications:

* PyXDG [12]_ (written in python)
* Desktop File Utils [13]_ (written in C)

Our goal is to patch the WM's with the help of these libraries to support the
specifications. APP's then only have to install a .desktop entry [9]_ and
optionally an icon and will be listed in all menus. This installation could
easily be done by two portage commands (domenu, doicon).


Implementation / Status
=======================

This GLEP exists for a long time now, still it is not accepted. I will outline
the current status:

* KDE 3.2 (x86) supports this specification
* GNOME 2.6 (~x86) support this specification
* domenu[12_] has to be included in portage to be used by the ebuilds to
  install a desktop entry
* Somebody needs to write patches for the other WM's:

We should focus on adding support to the following WM's first:

* xfce, blackblox / fluxbox / openbox / waimea / kahakai, icewm
* fvwm, windowmaker, enlightment, afterstep

The following are not so important, but support some kind of applications 
menu:

* aewm / aewm++ / evilwm / windowlab / oroborus, amiwm, ctwm, flwm
* golem, larswm, pekwm, plwm, pwm, qvwm, selectwm, treewm, trwm
* vtwm, xpde


Credits
=======

Based on suggestions from former discussions on the gentoo bugzilla,
mailinglists and forums.


References
==========

.. [1] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5510
.. [2] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10429
.. [3] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4884
.. [4] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25797
.. [5] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=66754
.. [6] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=263106#263106
.. [7] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25756
.. [8] http://www.freedesktop.org
.. [9] Desktop Entry Specification
   [http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec/0.9.4/]
.. [10] Menu Specification
   [http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/0.8/]
.. [11] Icon Theme Specification
   [http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/icon-theme-spec/0.7/]
.. [12] PyXDG
   [http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pyxdg]
.. [13] Desktop File Utils
   [http://www.freedesktop.org/software/desktop-file-utils]
.. [14] domenu
   [http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25756]


Copyright
=========

This document has been placed in the public domain.
1	GLEP: 16
2	Title: Gentoo Menu System
3	Version: $Revision: 1.6 $
4	Last-Modified: $Date: 2004/11/11 21:30:01 $
5	Author: Heinrich Wendel <lanius@gentoo.org>,
6	Status: deferred
7	Type: Standards Track
8	Content-Type: text/x-rst
9	Created: 09-Sep-2003
10	Post-History: 04-Oct-2003, 11-Dec-2003, 13-Dec-2003, 4-May-2004, 11-Nov-2004
11
12	Definitions
13	============
14
15	APP
16	A graphical application that should be listed in the menus.
17	WM
18	A program containing a menu manager (i.e. a program that can display a menu, e.g. a windowmanager).
19
20
21
22	Abstract
23	========
24
25	This GLEP handles a proposal for the following two goals:
26
27	* Create a common menu layout, which would be independent of the WM.
28	This point is quite important for those people who use more than one WM.
29	* Provide a common way to add applications to the menus.
30
31
32	Status
33	======
34
35	Timed out (and now subsumed by the gentoo-desktop top-level project)
36
37
38
39	Motivation
40	==========
41
42	GNOME, KDE, Fluxbox, to name only a few, have all their own ways of handling
43	menus. There have been several requests [1]_ [2]_ [3]_ [4]_ [5]_ [6]_ from
44	users to streamline these menus. Furthermore there are several bug reports
45	about applications not having a menu entry [7]_, but since there is not
46	standard way to create such an entry, they are just sitting around in
47	bugzilla.
48
49
50
51	Rationale
52	=========
53
54	The idea of a common menu system is not new to the Linux world, every big
55	distribution (Debian, Mandrake, RedHat, Suse) has such a system. The big DE's,
56	KDE and GNOME, with the help of freedesktop.org [8]_, are also trying to
57	implement one standard. That will most likely happen in GNOME 2.6 and KDE 3.2
58	(Currently they are only implementing different versions of the
59	desktop-entry-spec, but interpreting it in an incompatible way). But there
60	are still many other WM's that currently don't support these specs. So we are
61	trying to base our work on the specifications GNOME and KDE are going to use.
62	(These are no official standards but evolving specifications). This has the
63	following advantages:
64
65	* follow specified standards
66	* i18n support
67	* provide the necessary flexibility and modularity
68	* integrate with small changes to our ebuildtree.
69	* support for per system and per user menus
70
71
72
73	Specification
74	=============
75
76	We are trying to follow these specifications:
77
78	* Desktop Entry Specification [9]_
79	* Menu Specification [10]_
80	* Icon Theme Specification [11]_
81
82	There are two libraries that offer an API to these specifications:
83
84	* PyXDG [12]_ (written in python)
85	* Desktop File Utils [13]_ (written in C)
86
87	Our goal is to patch the WM's with the help of these libraries to support the
88	specifications. APP's then only have to install a .desktop entry [9]_ and
89	optionally an icon and will be listed in all menus. This installation could
90	easily be done by two portage commands (domenu, doicon).
91
92
93	Implementation / Status
94	=======================
95
96	This GLEP exists for a long time now, still it is not accepted. I will outline
97	the current status:
98
99	* KDE 3.2 (x86) supports this specification
100	* GNOME 2.6 (~x86) support this specification
101	* domenu[12_] has to be included in portage to be used by the ebuilds to
102	install a desktop entry
103	* Somebody needs to write patches for the other WM's:
104
105	We should focus on adding support to the following WM's first:
106
107	* xfce, blackblox / fluxbox / openbox / waimea / kahakai, icewm
108	* fvwm, windowmaker, enlightment, afterstep
109
110	The following are not so important, but support some kind of applications
111	menu:
112
113	* aewm / aewm++ / evilwm / windowlab / oroborus, amiwm, ctwm, flwm
114	* golem, larswm, pekwm, plwm, pwm, qvwm, selectwm, treewm, trwm
115	* vtwm, xpde
116
117
118	Credits
119	=======
120
121	Based on suggestions from former discussions on the gentoo bugzilla,
122	mailinglists and forums.
123
124
125
126	References
127	==========
128
129	.. [1] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5510
130	.. [2] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10429
131	.. [3] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4884
132	.. [4] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25797
133	.. [5] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=66754
134	.. [6] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=263106#263106
135	.. [7] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25756
136	.. [8] http://www.freedesktop.org
137	.. [9] Desktop Entry Specification
138	[http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec/0.9.4/]
139	.. [10] Menu Specification
140	[http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/0.8/]
141	.. [11] Icon Theme Specification
142	[http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/icon-theme-spec/0.7/]
143	.. [12] PyXDG
144	[http://www.freedesktop.org/software/pyxdg]
145	.. [13] Desktop File Utils
146	[http://www.freedesktop.org/software/desktop-file-utils]
147	.. [14] domenu
148	[http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25756]
149
150
151	Copyright
152	=========
153
154	This document has been placed in the public domain.