[RULE] Re: Proposals for the 0.4.0 Version of Slinky

[Ingo Lantschner]

> 1) there are menu management systems already (can't remember their
> names right now), and above all the relevant standard at
> www.freedesktop.org: using them is the best way to go.
Just visited this webpage - as far as I understand what it is about it
is addressed to developers of windowmanagers/desktops. So I guess I did
not explain sufficient what I wanted to propose. Please allow me to go
more into details:

After startup of icewm with startx I get a menue-structure, which does
not conform to a rulified system (f.e. KDE and Gnome-entries which point
to nothing; but no AbiWord-Entry.) Editing a plain-text-file allows an
administrator (not programmer) to change this menu to a more useful one
(there is an already given config-file provided by the icewm standard
installation)

Until Slinky did provide "only" the base-operatingsystem, I thought that
I will prepare this file and copy it by means of a post-install script
to the right directory. Since Slinky provides now base-Applications, I
think it makes sense, that immediately after startup of the installed
system, one can access these apps thought a menue-entry in the
startmenu. The main advantage is, that now anyone (and not only the ones
who use an VUM-altered ISO) can profit from the correct startmenu.

A. What should be done by Slinky:

a. copy the configfiles
   cp menu /usr/share/icewm
   cp preferences /usr/share/icewm
   cp toolbar /usr/share/icewm

b. copy the icons (iconfiles not attached yet because of size)
   cp -f ./icons/* /usr/share/icewm/icons
   
c. remove "disturbing" preferences file
   rm ~/.icewm/preferences

This gives a system, where users login with a standard-user and can not
have their personal desktop - typically used in computerschools and
internet-cafes.  Other procedures can be discussed but for the area we
work in, the PC is anything else than personal.


B. What I can provide and also maintain in the future:

The above mentioned files prepared that they fit to what ever apps is
installed by Slinky. This is simple, because icewm is intelligent and
only shows entries, with valid paths. F.e. the line

	prog AbiWord abiword_48.xpm /usr/bin/abiword

shows only up in the menu, if the executable "abiword" is installed
at the given location. So we only have to make sure, that the scripts
of Slinky and these entries fit together. 


> 2) If the project is to progress, it is important to find maintainers
> of several subsystems. Michael is great, but nobody can do everything
> alone. Making RPMs of these menu management things, or everybody else,
> and then handing them over for ISO creation or separate download is
> much better
As written above, I can maintain the GUI from the point of an
Administrator (this is what I learned yet). Making an RPM ... well I do
not have the slightest idea about this but I think I can learn this in
the near future. The only doubt I have: Is something which can be done
by 5 lines in a script worth to be packaged? Anyhow, you have much more
experience and as soon as you say "yes, it makes sense because of ..." I
will open my Linux Bible and start to read :-) 

Hope this makes the things clearer and sorry for the sometimes strange
english of mine :-) Thanks for reading all this stuff, Ingo.

P.S: The attached file should give an impression, they were built for
an older slinky - NOT for 0.3.95

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Ingo Lantschner

	Verein zur Unterstuetzung von Menschen
	Marchettigasse 5/11, A-1060 Wien
	Tel (+43-1) 595 5766
	Fax (+43-1) 532 4041
	http://www.vum.at/
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