Very Computer

Hey,

    I am developing an application that when installed has links in the
"start" menu. I know a bit about .directory and .desktop files. My problem
is that it looks like I need to parse and edit the applications.menu file to
include references to my .directory and .desktop files. Is there a tool for
doing so? It seems hard to believe that all application developers would
have to write their own tools for parsing/editing this file. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003 13:49:29 -0800, in comp.os.linux.development.apps, "Rob

First question: _what_ "start" menu?

Quote:> I know a bit about .directory and .desktop files.

Sorry, but those files don't exist on _my_ desktop. What do they do?

Quote:>My problem
>is that it looks like I need to parse and edit the applications.menu file to
>include references to my .directory and .desktop files. Is there a tool for
>doing so? It seems hard to believe that all application developers would
>have to write their own tools for parsing/editing this file. Any ideas?

Well, if such a tool exists, it exists only for the environment that you
are running. Obviously, you aren't running the same environment that I run.
So, first order of business is to determine what environment you are
running; what is it that gives you a "start" menu, and uses ~/.desktop and
~/.directory files?  From there, you can locate the makers of that
environment, and determine if they have a tool to parse/edit the "start"
menu.

Quote:>Thanks in advance,

>Rob

Lew Pitcher, Information Technology Consultant, Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed are my own, not my employer's.)

You're absolutely right, I didn't include enough information. I'm talking
about Gnome and KDE Windows managers running on RH8.0. I don't think that
the disro of Linux would make a difference other than the version of Gnome
and KDE that are included in that software suite. Also by "start" menu I
mean applications menu. The "start" menu is a windows term and I probably
shouldn't have used it in this forum, but I didn't have another name for it.

The problem is the same. I can't add links to the applications menu without
parsing/editing this file called applications.menu. Any resources or tools
would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob

On KDE ist should be sufficient to put your .desktop into one of  applnk
directory's subdirectories, depending on the nature of your
application.

It will show up the next time kicker reads the config.

It should be working the smae way in GNOME.
Addtionally GNOME2 implemented the VFolder specification (see
www.freedesktop.org) for details.

AFAIK are the KDE developers working to implement it too.

I suggest contacting eiter the KDE or GNOME developer mailinglist if you
need in-depth information about this.

Cheers,
Kevin
--

Student at Graz University of Technology
http://www.sbox.tu-graz.ac.at/home/v/voyager

On Tue, 11 Feb 2003 12:23:22 -0800, in comp.os.linux.development.apps, "Rob

OK, that's better. Someone with intimate knowledge of Gnome and/or KDE can
help you or you can check at http://www.gnome.org/ and http://www.kde.org
for assistance.

Quote:>I don't think that
>the disro of Linux would make a difference other than the version of Gnome
>and KDE that are included in that software suite.

Most commercial distributions supply Gnome and KDE, but in most (if not
all) commercial distributions, these two desktop managers are _optional_.

Although my Slackware systems have both Gnome and KDE installed, I never
use either of them on my desktop. Consequently, I have neither a "start"
menu, nor ~/.desktop file. The same goes for my RedHat system; on all of
these systems I run Blackbox as the WM, and _no_ DM at all. If I were to
run a DM, it would probably be XFCE (http://www.xfce.org/), not Gnome _or_
KDE.

[snip]

Lew Pitcher, Information Technology Consultant, Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed are my own, not my employer's.)