[ubuntu-studio-devel] Graphics Categories

[Len Ovens]

On Sun, 10 May 2015, Ross Gammon wrote:

> On 05/10/2015 03:56 PM, Set Hallstrom wrote:
>>
>> To reorganize the graphics tool-set, I've been playing with the idea of
>> 1 main categories called "visuals" holding a set of subcategories:
>> | Visuals
>>   | 2d
>>   | 3d
>>   | video
>>   | publishing
>>
>> Would this be a possible take on the menu layout for the graphic
>> applications?
>
> Hmm. This probably won't fit too well with the Freedesktop categories
> which are quite rigid [1]. For the "visual" applications, they can

Besides rigid, one might add old and needing updating... and perhaps not 
followed by very many developers.

> really only go under Graphics or Video. It is possible to add a new
> category when it is completely missing from the standard ones with "X-"
> strings [2]. Maybe we should try sticking to the standard categories
> first and see what it would look like?

A mess.  :)  try renaming /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/studio.menu 
to studio.unem and you will see what it looks like. Most likely the 
application you want to run is off the bottom of the screen somewhere in 
multimedia. (you can probably see this even in the menu on a live ISO)

Really, the right categories are meant for a normal desktop with not too 
many appliactions, and those applications spread pretty evenly through the 
categories. The only category anyone has spent time to neaten up at all is 
the games category.

Fixing categories is a major job that means going to developers, packagers 
and others fixing each package that may end up getting installed on 
STudio. I'm all for it but it may not be done by 16.04. It would be 
possible to make all our own *.desktop files, but maintaining one file is 
a lot easier than keeping up with a fleet of them.

That said, there are some categories that could be used. I found that just 
putting "Recording" in our Audio Production sub menu puts all my versions 
of Ardour in there. A3, A4.0.0 and A4.0.240dbg right now. Maybe there are 
some other Categries that are there now that would work.

It means going through the desktop files (by hand or script) and listing 
the categories as they are now. Some of the really bad (wrong) ones we can 
create diffs for and send them to the devs or packagers.

More later....

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net