Wine menu creation questions

Frank Richter frank.richter at gmail.com
Sun Jan 25 17:32:43 CST 2009


On 25.01.2009 22:58, Owen Rudge wrote:
> "Windows software" may be a better term than "Wine". "Program Files" 
> wouldn't really make sense, since all the items in the Applications menu 
> are meant to be program files. On the issue of whether we should keep 
> the "Programs" subfolder, I guess you could transparently redirect 
> things that try to create items there, and it would probably not cause 
> too many problems. The current system though doesn't seem too bad.

Also, Windows and Linux desktops have a bit of different "views" on what
the "desktop menu" should contain: most of the time, the Windows start
menu contains one folder per application, with that folder containing
not only the application but also a link to the README or web page,
uninstaller etc. In contrast, Linux desktop first sort the items per
category (eg Education, Development) and there is one icon per
application (no READMEs etc).
Now, if the Windows start menu would simply be merged with the desktop
menu at the top level, you'd suddenly throw (potentially a lot)
application/vendor "categories" into it - arguably with a messy result.
Ideally, Windows applications would just show up in the according
desktop menu categories - but of course, since this information isn't
provided by Windows in any way* you would have to have a database of
application-to-category mappings**.
So realistically, while not the nicest solution, there probably has to
be some "Wine applications" or "Windows applications" (or, if you want
to do without Win* entirely, "Other applications" or so).

* - Vista added the Game Explorer, so games could be identified and
added to the Games category.
** - This actually sounds like something the "3rd party Wine users" (eg
Crossover, Bordeaux, Wine Doors) could implement.

-f.r.



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