Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Spider <spider@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev <gentoo-dev@g.o>
Subject: Re: Fw: [gentoo-dev] [PROPOSAL] Menu system for all gentoo wm's.
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 15:09:39
Message-Id: 20030530170936.782fa567.spider@gentoo.org
1 hi folks, this came as a reply when I bounced the initial mail to a
2 friend of mine whom I have been discussing implementation and so on with
3 (quite a while before any discussion on the list)
4
5
6 //Spider
7
8
9
10
11 begin forwarded message:
12
13 Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 17:02:25 +0200
14 From: redhog <redhog@×××××××××.net>
15 To: Spider <spider@g.o>
16 Subject: Re: Fw: [gentoo-dev] [PROPOSAL] Menu system for all gentoo
17 wm's.
18
19
20 Kan du fwd:a mitt svar kanske?
21
22 -----
23 Hi!
24 First of all both Debian and Mdk does have such systems. But they are
25 different, with different file-formats. In addition,
26 http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec.html
27
28 specifies a third format, which is used by GNOME and KDE at the moment.
29 The system in Debian is quite broken, and the implementation (the hack
30 to convert from their format to the ones of the different
31 window-managers) even more so. Esepecially when it comes to translating
32 and transforming the menu.
33 We at TakeIT/Jamtlinux are currently using Debian (don't hate us for
34 that folks!) for a system for high-schools, and thus translation into
35 our native language, aswell as "dumbing-down" the menu (moving all but
36 the most frequently used apps to a special sub-menu), is very important
37 for our application. As the current Debian hack is so broken, I decided
38
39 to hack a new implementation of it, in Python. I succeeded with a
40 minimal version (supporting the same input format and output to the
41 GNOME/KDE format) of this in just an eavening (the old hack was written
42 in C, and thus much clumsier than mine), and continued with support for
43 different input sources, like the one specified by freedesktop.org.
44 The program reads a set of menu-sources (files or directory structures)
45 of different formats using input-modules, stores all tanslations find in
46
47 the input-files and combines them with ones provided in special
48 translation/language-packs, filters the entries using simple
49 python-expressions, transforms them (for example their paths down
50 through the menu-tree) using other such expressions, combines all the
51 entries to a tree, translates them using the stored translations, and
52 finally exports them to one or more destination files/directory
53 structures using output-modules for the different fomats.
54 This hack is totally independent of the Debian distribution as such (it
55 depends only on the Python language), and I wouldn't mind if you
56 included it in your distribution and/or added some more input our output
57
58 modules.
59 /Egil
60
61 >Hello Folks!
62 >I have recently been thinking on implementing the menu system for
63 >gentoo, something like what we have in mandrake (I guess it came from
64 >debian). At the moment when a user installs a new app he needs to
65 >figure out what is the name of the binary he needs and then add it to
66 >the menu of his window manager(s). This is done automatically only if
67 >you're installing an app for your desktop (i.e. gnome apps on gnome,
68 >kde apps on kde). The whole idea is make thins process automatic - the
69 >user installs a programm foo, log out back in and sees the menu entry
70 >in all window managers.
71 >
72 >Here is my suggestion on who it should work.
73 >On the system we have a central location for the menu, say /etc/menu.d/
74 >Here all subfolders represent categories and files - menu entries
75 >respectively. The file contains three entries, something like this:
76 >
77 >Name=MyApp
78 >Command=/usr/bin/myapp
79 >Icon=icon.png
80 >
81 >These entries are created when a pckage is merged by a special domenu
82 >command in a ebuild. E.g. domenu Editors, GVim, gvim
83 >In addition to the categories folder the menu.d/ would contain a folder
84 >"rules", which has the ebuild style files describing how the menus for
85 >each installed wm/de should be generated. It would look like this:
86 >
87 >init_menu() {
88 >#Do all nessecary init. here. Eg. touch the menu file.
89 >}
90 >
91 >start_menu() {
92 >#Wright whatever should be in heading of the menu.
93 >#Especially important for one file menus file fluxbox.
94 >}
95 >
96 >write_entry() {
97 >#Ovious. Here we have ${Cat} ${Name} ${Com} vars defined and set.
98 >}
99 >
100 >end_menu() {
101 >#whatever should be done to finish the menu.
102 >}
103 >
104 >Now the most important step: genrating users menu. First of all a user
105 >should have a choice of whether to use this system or not. If the user
106 >likes it he should add a call to syncmenu (a bash scipt) to the
107 >.bash_profile or whatever file.
108 >
109 >When the syncmenu starts it first of all syncronises the ~/.menu with
110 >/etc/menu.d (It will basically sync everything except the files that
111 >have Custom tag - means edited by user and don't touch). Then this file
112 >sources the files in the /etc/menu.d/rules and calls the functions in
113 >the order: init, start, write (for every entry), end.
114 >
115 >I guess the system is quite flexible and allows to support any wm,
116 >irrespectively of the menu style it uses. However, before starting
117 >woking on it I just wanted to get some feedback on the idea.
118 >
119 >Ok, waiting for your criticism ;)
120 >
121 >--
122 >Sergey Kuleshov <svyatogor@g.o>
123 >Let the Force be with us!
124 >
125 >
126 >--
127 >gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list
128 >
129 >
130 >
131
132
133
134
135 --
136 begin .signature
137 This is a .signature virus! Please copy me into your .signature!
138 See Microsoft KB Article Q265230 for more information.
139 end

Replies

Subject Author
Re: Fw: [gentoo-dev] [PROPOSAL] Menu system for all gentoo wm's. Svyatogor <svyatogor@g.o>