.desktop files (particularly if your app is in the extras release)

[Seth Nickell <snickell stanford edu>]

I would like to strongly encourage package maintainers who's
applications will be included in the GNOME 1.4 release to update your
.desktop files to include more information than they currently do.
Specifically, it would be a Good Thing if everyone added a MimeType=
entry, but I would like to encourage application developers to read the
spec (the only copy I know of is stored at KDE, but the spec was a joint
effort) and try to support this seemingly forgotten standard:

http://webcvs.kde.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/kdelibs/kio/DESKTOP_ENTRY_STANDARD?rev=1.9

Why? First of all adding a MimeType tag will get your app "registered"
with Konqueror and the rest of KDE for opening files of that type. This
means its easier for users to mix and match GNOME and KDE applications,
a Good Thing unless you are interested in political maneuvering.
Secondly its generally a good idea to support standards, particularly if
we agreed to them with KDE long ago and still have failed to support
them. Making negotiations and agreements towards interoperability means
jack-shit if we don't actually implement the agreements (and KDE has in
this case) ;-)

(the other thing I am wondering is why the .desktop spec is not on
www.freedesktop.org ?)

-Seth