Re: hats off + app-finder

[Erik Andersen <andersen inconnect com>]

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Greg Fall wrote:

> >From a (mostly) non-developer and gnome-list lurker, much appreciation
> to all developers.  Traffic here has been heavy, which clearly indicates
> much effort is going in.
> 
> One question:  A recent review of Red Hat 5.2 griped about RPM because
> "when you install a new application, RPM doesn't automatically put a
> shortcut to it on your desktop" (that is not an exact quote).  While
> this complaint is naive, Windows-centric, at least a little bit stupid,
> and aims at the wrong target (RPM), it has a little validity.  I don't
> know how GNOME looks for applications.  Clearly it does something.
> However, what it does seems to not quite cut the mustard.  Could 
> somebody explain the 5WH about GNOME finding applications, and add any 
> comments w/r/t how it could be improved?
> 

I believe the recent review you mention was complaining about 3rd
party RPMs such as Oracle 8 and Corel's wordperfect.  Blaming those
on RedHat is comparable to blaming Microsoft or IS when <insert name of
company using InstallShield> makes a sucky installation program.  
Granted, installshield greatly facilitates making sucky installs 
(and yes, I can say this from experience as I have packaged 
commercial products under Nt and getting IS to handle complex 
dependancies, etc like RPM and dpkg do is a nightmare.)

Under IS, if the 3rd party IS developer neglects to put stuff into the 
start menu by adding the right commands into the install script -- nothing
shows up.  Under Debian, if the package maintainer neglects to properly use
the menu program to install an entry into the menu -- same deal.  Presumably
RPM works the same way.

It sounds like the Oracle or Corel package builders simply didn't
follow the established packaging policy for setting up menu entries.  
Gnome was not mentioned in the referenced article in the context of 
looking for apps or not cutting the mustard if I recall correctly.

 -Erik

--
Erik B. Andersen   Web:    http://www.inconnect.com/~andersen/ 
                   email:  andersee@debian.org
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