desktop entry names, generic?

[Bryan Clark <bclark redhat com>]

Hi ~

doing both lists just to get the idea stated, but lets please keep any
discussion on the usability list only please.

We're updated the HIG recommendation for menu item names.  Currently we
are requiring a GenericName and Name for .desktop entries, where a
generic name is purely the applications functionality ("Web Browser")
with out it's application name and the name is the proper name which has
the applications name and its functionality together (App Name +
GenericName, "Epiphany Web Browser")

This separation of the two names provides us with the ability to give
functional names to applications when there is only one application
installed (having only one image viewer means that "Joe Image Viewer"
displays as "Image Viewer".  This also gives proper names to
applications when there is more than one installed (having two image
viewers would display what each applications name is, "Joe Image Viewer"
and "Crackbox Image Viewer").  

Problem being that in this discussion came the idea that the GNOME base
applications should carry only the GNOME brand.  When I say the GNOME
brand, what I mean is _no brand at all_.  So if "Joe Image Viewer" is
part of the desktop release and the default GNOME Image Viewer it's menu
item name remains "Image Viewer", no matter how many other Image Viewer
applications are installed in parallel.  Now when the user installs
"Crackbox Image Viewer" the "Joe Image Viewer" retains the name "Image
Viewer" as it's 'brand' or proper name is to be a part of the desktop.

As a short side note to this of course is that if the user uninstalled
"Joe Image Viewer", then the "Crackbox Image Viewer" would display it's
generic name "Image Viewer" because it would be the only application of
that generic name.

Recommending that the desktop files come with both GenericName and Name
in the format specified provides us with the ability to display either
as seen fit (good).  However there is no indicator for a GNOME standard
Desktop module in the .desktop file so we would know what applications
are part of the GNOME Desktop release and what are not (bad).  A simple
X-GNOME-Desktop=true could provide this, assuming the code interpreted
it correctly.

The cheap alternative for the Desktop release would be to scrap the Name
field entry in favor of the generic, going against the spec so that it
always displayed the generic name. (i'm not in favor of: bad)

Cheers,
~ Bryan