Launcher problems... bugs or am I just too stupid to get it?

[Paul Smith]

I'm having a hard time working with the Launcher.

For example I have a proprietary application I use at work for source
code control.  It has a Linux GUI client (written in Java with a shell
script wrapper to launch it) but it doesn't come with any desktop
integration at all, so I've written my own very simple .desktop file for
it that I've been using the Gnome Panel for years.

So now I've upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 64bit and added the .desktop file
and I see the icon in the Dash.  I click it and the application starts,
but sometimes no icon at all is added to the Launcher.  Other times, I
get two empty spaces where icons would go, then the icon itself in a
third space; when I exit the app all three "spaces" are removed.  Still
other times, I get just the single icon I expect.  These seem to me to
pretty clearly be bugs but I can't come up with any reliable reproducer
(although I get bad behavior at least half the time).

Now if I right-click on the icon that is created (when it is) and "Lock
to Launcher", then I try to click on the icon in the Launcher, it throbs
a couple of times but my application is never started.  I replaced the
application with a script that writes to a temp file and the temp file
is never created, so obviously it's not running the program that I
specified in my .desktop file.  I have no idea what it IS running... is
there any way to see what actions the icons in the Launcher are bound
to?

Now if I instead open the Dash and drag the icon onto the Launcher, it
stays and when I click THAT my application does launch... yay!  However,
it throbs (like it doesn't recognize that the application launched) and
then I get ANOTHER icon on the Launcher, put there by the application.
And every time I click the dragged/locked icon, instead of taking me to
the existing application instance it starts a new one.  I checked the
desktop spec and it mentions setting StartupWMClass.  Would that help?
How do I find out what the WM Class is for this application?

I can't figure out this new-fangled Launcher!  It's behavior just
doesn't make sense to me.  I just want an icon on the Launcher such that
when I click it, my application launches, I don't get extra icons in the
Launcher for it, and when I click the icon again it takes me back there
(the same behavior as the other icons in the launcher).  Is that not
possible?

Any help?