Soften the the wording recommending menu files: let's do it in Jessie.

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi,

Charles Plessy wrote:

> please, I would like to decouple two issues.
>
>  - Issue 1: the Debian menu is superseded in major destkotop environments, and
>    the Policy should recognise that the Debian menu is not the lead mechanism
>    for managing menus in Debian anymore.  Unfortutately we have two parallel
>    systems at the moment. 
>
>  - Issue 2: deciding whether the Debian menu is actually obsolete and should be
>    removed from the Policy.

I don't understand the distinction.  If policy doesn't say I should
have debian-menu entries, then what is all this text in policy about
debian-menu for?

I'm not saying that the old Debian menu system should be removed from
the archive.  I'm saying that either

 (A) the recommendation to use it should be removed from where it
     currently is in policy, perhaps to be moved to an appendix, or

 (B) there should be clear advice about when a package should provide
     a Debian menu entry and when it should provide an fdo menu entry

Otherwise I, a packager, have no idea what policy is telling me about
how to correctly package software.

[...]
> If we tie Issue 1 to Issue 2, my gut feeling (not my wish) is that there is
> currently no way to conclude without going in front of the TC or having a GR,

I don't suspect that at all.  I like to think the policy process can
work, especially when I don't even see any major disagreement.  If
there is some disagreement, hearing where I have gone wrong above
would help me a lot, since then it becomes possible to see where the
policy can be clarified.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan