automatically create menu entries

[Roman Kennke]

Am Mi, den 06.10.2004 schrieb Adam Weinberger um 14:00:
> >> (10.06.2004 @ 0710 PST): Roman Kennke said, in 1.5K: <<
> > Hi FreeBSD-Gnome-list,
> > 
> > I've been using FreeBSD+Gnome for a while now and want to say first,
> > that I'm very pleased with this.
> > 
> > One thing that I am missing is menu entries for common applications like
> > Mozilla, Emacs, OpenOffice and so on. I would like to have this
> > configured automatically. I have some ideas how to accomplish this:
> > 
> > 1. each application (port) is responsible for creating desktop entries
> > in the /usr/X11R6/share/gnome/applications (?) directory. ok, not a very
> > good solution. This could be supported by the ports system in some way.
> > 
> > 2. someone (maybe me) starts to create (or maybe there exists) a
> > database of applications with their common binary locations and .desktop
> > entries for them. Then it should be easy to scan a computer for these
> > apps and include the desktop entries in
> > /usr/X11R6/share/gnome/applications directory
> > 
> > 3. another cool system is Debians menu system. something similar could
> > be implemented in the ports system. This again gives the ports
> > developers some responsibility.
> > 
> > Such a system would not only be good for FreeBSD/Gnome but also for
> > other Freedesktop.org compliant window managers and/or OSes.
> > 
> > Is there interest in such a system? Does something like this already
> > exist in FreeBSD? Which approach would you like?
> >> end of "automatically create menu entries" from Roman Kennke <<
> 
> I've been toying with the concept of a Makefile macro that will generate
> desktop entries for ports that do not install them. I'll get moving on
> that. It's the least portable option, however.

Indeed? Is this in a usable state?

> I think that if you're up to writing a program, you should either make
> (a) a full-fledged GNOME menu editor,

this already exists IMO. Click on Start-Here, and then on Applications.
Or, type applications:/// in Nautilus address field, if present.

>  or (b) use your second suggestion
> and make an app that also recognizes when a program has a desktop entry
> but has been renamed and/or moved to a different category. I disagree
> with the way that fluxbox-generate-menu overwrites the menu that you
> already have.

Yes. I think best would be to create a separate Top-Level-Menü
('FreeBSD' ?? similar to Debian), and group the found applications below
that one, not touching Gnome's (or whatever WM/Desktop is using this)
menu.

/Roman