From: Don Armstrong Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 15:49:46 +0000 (-0700) Subject: add draft of decision text X-Git-Url: https://git.donarmstrong.com/?p=debian-ctte.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=fe3e90e22fe16439cbbc2e0b36fc885d9f36f36e add draft of decision text --- diff --git a/741573_menu_systems/decision b/741573_menu_systems/decision new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51c6cb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/741573_menu_systems/decision @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +===== TITLE + +Debian Menu System + +===== WEB SUMMARY + +The technical committee adopts the changes to policy regarding menu +entries proposed by Charles Plessy, and additionally resolves that +packages providing desktop files shall not also provide a menu file. + +===== EMAIL INTRO + +The technical committee was asked in #741573 to decide an issue of +Debian technical policy regarding menu regarding the menu system. + +===== EMAIL EPILOGUE + +The technical committee would like to thank everyone who participated +in the discussion of #741573 and the patience of the Policy Editors as +the technical committee worked through this issue very slowly. + +===== DECISION + +Whereas: + + 1. The Debian Policy Manual states (§9.6) that 'The Debian menu + package provides a standard interface between packages providing + applications and "menu programs"'. It further states that 'All + packages that provide applications that need not be passed any + special command line arguments for normal operations should + register a menu entry for those applications'. + + 2. All details about menu system requirement are delegated to the + Debian Menu sub-policy and Debian Menu System manuals (the + "Debian menu system"). + + 3. An external specification, the Freedesktop Desktop Entry + Specification (the ".desktop spec"), with native support in many + X desktop environments, has appeared since the Debian Menu + system was developed. The .desktop spec offers a fairly strict + super-set of Debian Menu system functionality. + + 4. The .desktop specification has significant technical benefits + for users over the Debian menu system. The .desktop + specification works together with the freedesktop.org mime type + and icon specifications to provide operations expected by + desktop users from other environments, such as Mac OS X or + Windows. As such, applications must provide a .desktop file to + operate well in most desktop environments. + + 5. The Debian Technical Committee has been asked to resolve a + dispute between maintainers of Debian Policy over a change that + + i. incorporates the description of the FreeDesktop menu system + and its use in Debian for listing program in desktop menus + and associating them with media types + + ii. softens the wording on the Debian Menu system to reflect that + in Jessie it will be neither displayed nor installed by + default on standard Debian installations. + + Therefore: + + The Technical Committee has reviewed the underlying technical + issues around this question and has resolved that Debian will be + best served by migrating away from our own Debian Menu System and + towards the common Freedesktop Desktop Entry Specification, and + that menu information for applications should not be duplicated in + two different formats. + + To encourage this change, we make menu files optional, ask that + packages include .desktop files as appropriate and prohibit + packages from providing both menu and .desktop files for the same + application. + +Using its power under §6.1.1 to decide on any matter of technical +policy, and its power under §6.1.5 to offer advice: + + 1. The Technical Committee adopts the changes proposed by Charles + Plessy in ba679bff[1]. + + 2. In addition to those changes, the Technical Committee resolves + that packages providing a .desktop file shall not also provide a + menu file for the same application. + + 3. We further resolve that "menu programs" should not depend on the + Debian Menu System and should instead rely on .desktop file + contents for constructing a list of applications to present to + the user. + + 4. We advise the maintainers of the 'menu' package to update that + package to reflect this increased focus on .desktop files by + modifying the 'menu' package to use .desktop files for the + source of menu information in addition to menu files. + + 5. Discussion of the precise relationship between menu file + section/hints values and .desktop file Categories values may be + defined within the Debian Menu sub-policy and Debian Menu + System. + + 6. Further modifications to the menu policy are allowed using the + normal policy modification process. + +[1]: http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/dbnpolicy/policy.git/commit/?id=ba679bff76f5b9152f43d5bc901b9b3aad257479