GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 117661
.desktop files: Name vs. GenericName
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
.desktop files shipped with epiphany contain Name=Web Browser. According to the .desktop file spec on www.freedesktop.org, it should be Name=Epiphany and GenericName=Web Browser.
Uhm I guess HIG and freedesktop comflicts
I'm wontfixing this unless the panel/nautilus choose generic name over name. Seth (to the best of my knowledge)and I both feel that the menu title ought to be "Web Browser". FWIW we also think the binary name ought to be gnome-web-browser. Epiphany is really a code name.
I'm not convinced WONTFIXing this is a good idea. If the two specs conflicts fixing one of them is probably necessary. Choosing one over the other will just lead to inconsistency.
It seems to me now that this is a generic question rather than just a simple issue in Epiphany. According to the HIG (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/desktop-integration.html - is this the URL I should look at?) name for Galeon should be "Galeon Web Browser", not "Web Browser". IMHO it is definitely a bad idea to only display "Web Browser" in the menu, in this case you'll have a "Web Browser" menu entry launching Epiphany, a "Web Browser" launching Opera, and dozens of other "Web Broswer"'s. HIG explains why "Nautilus File Manager" is generally better than "Nautilus". It is definitely right if it appears under the Utilities menu for example. However, if it appears under Utilities->File Managers, then repeating "File Manager" is redundant and IMHO does not help. So whether it is good to show the GeneralName might depend on how the menu is organized. Currently there's a small conflict between the .desktop spec and HIG's recommendation, since this latter one redefines the semantics of the Name field. This is bad. The aim of freedesktop is to provide a common base for all desktop environments. Gnome should exactly follow it, or extend it with its own X-Gnome-Name fields or ask its maintainers to modify the official desktop spec if Gnome developers think it is wrong. KDE follows the .desktop spec, fills Name and GenericName accordingly. It is configurable in the Control Center whether menus should display "Name", "Name (GenericName)" or "GenericName (Name)". IMHO this should be followed by Gnome, too. If Gnome developers think that putting a kind of description and not only the application name in the menu helps the user, then menus should show the value of GenericName, but Name still should only contain the name. (If you think there's a better forum to discuss it rather than here in bugzilla (e.g. a mailing list), please let me know, I'll join that.)
1 If your application's proper name is already descriptive of its functionality, and not just suggestive, use the format: Application Name 2 If there is a succinct functional description of your application, use the format: ApplicationName FunctionalDescription IHMO the hig is really not clear here :/ Dave seem to consider Epiphany just a code name and "Web browser" the real name. In that case we fall in case 1. The question is what's the best name for Epiphany I guess ;) I guess this should be brought on usability list (and maybe desktop-devel). I already see Jeff flames though ;) I dont have a strong opinion myself, I'm fine with going with what the community think is better. Basically I agree that apps names should be functional but web browsers on linux are 2000, so I'm not sure if it's doable atm.
well worst comes to worst it should definately be gnome web browser not epiphany...although i still feel web browser is the best label in terms of usability for the gnome desktop (which is what i'm most concerned with distros can change the menus titles if they choose but thats not our concern).
IHMO Gnome web browser would be worst that Epiphany Web Browser, you expose a concept that should not be in the user model. Anyway, what do you think about discussing this on gnome lists?
We need to make a call for 1.0
I think the 1.0 call ought to be to leave it as is, because it is better for the usability of the gnome desktop as a whole. If distributors want specific names in the apps menu they can change them themselves. Gnome already does this for the "Text Editor" for instance, and redhat relabels stuff when appropriate.
I still think it would be good to discuss it on mailing lists :)
I definitely think epiphany should appear somewhere in the menu entry, if galeon, mozilla, ... chooses to use "Web Browser", in the end this will be really confusing...
Closing this for now. A general discussion is being made on desktop-devel. If there will be specific fix requests based on a common gnome decision, we will fix them.