:: [DNG] Menus: was package request
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Author: Steve Litt
Date:  
To: dng
Old-Topics: [DNG] package request
Subject: [DNG] Menus: was package request
On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 13:49:32 +0200
<emninger@???> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Is there any possibility to package for devuan xdgmenumaker (1) (2)?
>
> It's a rocksolid and very nice menumaker which makes for *ANY* *boxes
> based desktop a xdgcompliant menu (which especially in debian
> with its awful menu system is badly needed).


This response specifically does not address whether or not the package
should be included. Instead, it's my response to xdg menus.

Menus that get updated every time a package is installed have always
seemed a welcome miracle of nature to me. I use them to find an app
as a second to last resort, or when I'm on a machine without dmenu and
UMENU. But I consider them read-only from my viewpoint: I wouldn't
change them because the changes are going to get overwritten, some
time, somehow. Also, they might not be organized the way I personally
want menus organized.

From the first time I saw a keystroke-driven menu on an Osborne 8bit
CPM machine in 1984, I've been completely sold on keystroke-driven menu
interfaces. Quick, easy to find things if well catagorized, they're
wonderful. They're an extremely valuable resource in my user interface.

And because they're so valuable, I want a menu that *I* administer. Not
Ubuntu, not Devuan, *I*. It exists in *my* data directory,
unclobberable. It's organized *my* way.

I made a program called UMENU to do this. Keyboard driven, no need to
press Enter, fast as hell, easily configurable. Survives not only major
upgrades, but distro-switches. I use it every day. Unfortunately, the
current UMENU is a deployment nightmare, so very few use it. Some day
I'm going to make a version that's driven off a directory tree, easily
deployed and configured.

No way does UMENU substitute for XDG menu. You need both: UMENU for
stuff you want to do your way and organize your way, XDG menu for stuff
you seldom use but want to find, and Suckless Tools' dmenu for simple
executables you use several times a week (or hundreds of times a day).

SteveT

Steve Litt
June 2016 featured book: Troubleshooting: Why Bother?
http://www.troubleshooters.com/twb