Re: app wrappers and gworkspace

[Alex Perez]

On Thu, 5 Aug 2004, Jonathan Shipley wrote:

> First question.
> 
> I like gworkspace, but it has some faults. So in the spirit of
> constructive criticism, here goes.
Indeed it does. I like it as well, but it definately needs to move 
foreward.
> 
> Why does gworkspace have to use app wrappers?  App wrappers are
IMHO it shouldnt/shouldn't have to/they should be generated automagically.

> virtually useless (sorry).  Firstly, they are no where near a
> comprehensive collection, and include many programs which I don't use.
> Secondly, the collection doesn't have most of the programs I actually
> have on my system.  Am I the only to use Mozilla instead of Netscape?
> Openoffice instead of Staroffice?  And finally, I am now fed up of
To add insult to injury, the appwrappers that ship with GWorkspace are 
HORRIDLY out of date.

> gworkspace.  Surely every program installed should be easily accessible?
> As it is -- it's as if most of my system isn't there as far as
> gworkspace is concerned.

Indeed. Enrico, I think GWorkspace should make appwrappers from .desktop 
entries which are stored in /usr/local/applications/*.desktop by default.

> 
> This can't go on can it?  Why can't gworkspace get the programs from
> somewhere else?  Perhaps /etc/mailcap?  At least I have those programs
> installed.  Or perhaps someone can think of a better way.
No, it can't. See above. The desktop entry specification is at 
http://freedesktop.org/Standards/desktop-entry-spec/0.9.4/ and will be an 
official freedesktop specification. It is already in widespread use in the 
gnome and KDE communities, and it's a very /very/ simple format. There's 
no reason GWorkspace shouldn't use it as well.

> 
> I, for one, would be *very* glad to have gworkspace work right after a
> fresh install.[1]  What's the point in having a really usable GUI for
> navigation if I have no way of easily performing an action on the file?
Agreed, 100%.

I suspect one of the biggest problems with GWorkspace is that really only 
one person, Enrico, works on it. While I'm in constructive-criticism mode, 
I also will mention that I think this whole "seperate application 
modularization" thing that GWorkspace recently went through is a step 
backwards and not forewards. While it might make sense to have the dock be 
a separata app, it makes little sense to have the inspector be. It should 
be a normal bundle. The way it is now is needlessly frustrating. When you 
try to close the inspector, GWorkspace says "warning! The inspector 
termintated unexpectedly, do you want to restart it?" which is maddening 
because it's /not/ unexpected since I just told it to quit....

It would be really nice of these sorts of annoyances would get fixed, or 
even better yet not created in the first place by more thorough planning.

Cheers,
Alex Perez