On Sat, 01 May 1999, pbrown@redhat.com wrote:
>A few weeks ago, we discussed the possibility of standardizing the desktop
>entry files so that both KDE and GNOME can use the same file format
>without any sort of conversion steps in between.
>
>Right now, the two formats are largely identical.  There are a few minor
>differences:
>
>1. GNOME desktop entries have the extension .desktop, KDE ones .kdelnk.
>GNOME also seems to be able to "do the right thing" when the extension is
>missing based on magic mime stuff, and KDE largely does as well.  At least
>KFM does... the panel does not.  This could easily change. I suppose we
>would make it look for .desktop files first, followed by .kdelnk files for
>backwards compatibility, finally use mime-magic to look for a desktop file
>without an extension.
>
>2. KDE entries contain the toplevel group [KDE Desktop Entry].  GNOME
>entries simplified this to [Desktop Entry].  This seems reasonable and
>generic.  I would motion that we adopt Desktop Entry, and fall back to KDE
>Desktop Entry if this group isn't present.  This would be some work in
>KConfig of course, but nothing difficult.

I will repeat what I said before.
When detecting desktop entry let's check for
"[<anything> Desktop Entry]" and not extension. Extension should not be used
for detection at all.  <anything> can be "KDE", "GNOME" , "UDE", "FOODE"...
anything.

>3. GNOME uses png files almost exclusively.  KDE largely makes use of XPM
>instead.  However, they both have the ability to read the other file
>format...I'm just not sure KPanel/KFM/Konquerer currently understand .png
>format icons.  I know that GNOME does (support XPM icons), because I
>worked closely with the RHAD labs on integrating KDE menu support into
>their panel for Red Hat Linux 6.0.

It would be good if we are able to take any format, but for KDE's native format
I vote for one that takes least decoding time, or is most easy for X or Qt to
handle.
--
Sven Radej      radej@kde.org
KDE developer   Visit http://www.kde.org