paulb@11 | 1 | Introduction
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paulb@11 | 2 | ------------
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paulb@11 | 3 |
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paul@68 | 4 | The desktop package provides desktop environment detection and resource
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paul@68 | 5 | opening support for a selection of common and standardised desktop
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paul@68 | 6 | environments.
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paulb@20 | 7 |
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paul@68 | 8 | Currently, in Python's standard library, there is apparently no coherent,
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paul@68 | 9 | cross-platform way of getting the user's environment to "open" files or
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paul@68 | 10 | resources (showing such files in browsers or editors, for example) when
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paul@68 | 11 | requested by a Python program. There is an os.startfile function which works
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paul@68 | 12 | for Windows, but no equivalent function for other desktop environments - the
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paul@68 | 13 | webbrowser module seems to employ alternative mechanisms in choosing and
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paul@68 | 14 | running external programs and presumably does not seek to provide general
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paul@68 | 15 | support for non-URL resources anyway.
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paul@68 | 16 |
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paul@68 | 17 | Since desktop environments like KDE and GNOME provide mechanisms for running
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paul@68 | 18 | browsers and editors according to the identified type of a file or resource,
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paul@68 | 19 | just as Windows "runs" files or resources, it is appropriate to have a module
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paul@68 | 20 | which accesses these mechanisms. It is this kind of functionality that the
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paul@68 | 21 | desktop package aims to support. Note that this approach is arguably better
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paul@68 | 22 | than that employed by the webbrowser module since most desktop environments
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paul@68 | 23 | already provide mechanisms for configuring and choosing the user's preferred
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paul@68 | 24 | programs for various activities, whereas the webbrowser module makes
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paul@68 | 25 | relatively uninformed guesses (for example, opening Firefox on a KDE desktop
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paul@68 | 26 | configured to use Konqueror as the default browser).
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paulb@11 | 27 |
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paulb@33 | 28 | Some ideas for desktop detection (XFCE) and URL opening (XFCE, X11) were
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paulb@33 | 29 | obtained from the xdg-utils project which seeks to implement programs
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paulb@33 | 30 | performing similar functions to those found in the desktop module. The
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paulb@33 | 31 | xdg-utils project can be found here:
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paulb@33 | 32 |
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paulb@33 | 33 | http://portland.freedesktop.org/
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paulb@33 | 34 |
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paulb@33 | 35 | Other information regarding desktop icons and menus, screensavers and MIME
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paulb@33 | 36 | configuration can also be found in xdg-utils.
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paulb@33 | 37 |
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paulb@11 | 38 | Contact, Copyright and Licence Information
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paulb@11 | 39 | ------------------------------------------
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paulb@11 | 40 |
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paulb@11 | 41 | No Web page has yet been made available for this work, but the author can be
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paulb@11 | 42 | contacted at the following e-mail address:
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paulb@11 | 43 |
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paulb@11 | 44 | paul@boddie.org.uk
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paulb@11 | 45 |
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paulb@11 | 46 | Copyright and licence information can be found in the docs directory - see
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paul@68 | 47 | docs/COPYING.txt, docs/lgpl-3.0.txt and docs/gpl-3.0.txt for more information.
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paulb@11 | 48 |
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paulb@11 | 49 | Notes
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paulb@11 | 50 | -----
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paulb@11 | 51 |
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paulb@4 | 52 | Notes on desktop application/environment support:
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paulb@4 | 53 |
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paulb@4 | 54 | KDE Supports file and URL opening using kfmclient, where the openURL
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paulb@4 | 55 | command opens the resource and the exec command runs the
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paulb@4 | 56 | resource.
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paulb@4 | 57 |
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paulb@4 | 58 | GNOME Supports file and URL opening using gnome-open.
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paulb@4 | 59 |
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paulb@33 | 60 | XFCE Supports file and URL opening using exo-open.
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paulb@33 | 61 |
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paulb@4 | 62 | ROX-Filer Supports file opening using "rox <filename>" but not URL
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paulb@4 | 63 | opening.
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paulb@17 | 64 |
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paul@68 | 65 | New in desktop 0.4 (Changes since desktop 0.3)
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paul@68 | 66 | ----------------------------------------------
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paulb@60 | 67 |
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paulb@60 | 68 | * Improved docstrings.
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paulb@60 | 69 | * Fixed support for examining the root window.
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paul@68 | 70 | * Changed the licence to the LGPL version 3 (or later).
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paulb@60 | 71 |
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paulb@54 | 72 | New in desktop 0.3 (Changes since desktop 0.2.4)
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paulb@54 | 73 | ------------------------------------------------
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paulb@54 | 74 |
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paulb@54 | 75 | * Made desktop a package.
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paulb@54 | 76 | * Added support for graphical dialogue boxes through programs such as
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paulb@54 | 77 | kdialog, zenity and Xdialog.
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paulb@54 | 78 | * Added support for inspecting desktop windows (currently only for X11).
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paulb@54 | 79 |
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paulb@33 | 80 | New in desktop 0.2.4 (Changes since desktop 0.2.3)
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paulb@33 | 81 | --------------------------------------------------
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paulb@33 | 82 |
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paulb@40 | 83 | * Added XFCE support (with advice from Miki Tebeka).
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paulb@36 | 84 | * Added Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) package support.
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paulb@33 | 85 |
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paulb@27 | 86 | New in desktop 0.2.3 (Changes since desktop 0.2.2)
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paulb@27 | 87 | --------------------------------------------------
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paulb@27 | 88 |
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paulb@27 | 89 | * Added Python 2.3 support (using popen2 instead of subprocess).
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paulb@27 | 90 |
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paulb@24 | 91 | New in desktop 0.2.2 (Changes since desktop 0.2.1)
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paulb@24 | 92 | --------------------------------------------------
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paulb@24 | 93 |
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paulb@24 | 94 | * Changed the licence to LGPL.
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paulb@24 | 95 |
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paulb@20 | 96 | New in desktop 0.2.1 (Changes since desktop 0.2)
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paulb@20 | 97 | ------------------------------------------------
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paulb@20 | 98 |
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paulb@20 | 99 | * Added Debian/Ubuntu package support.
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paulb@20 | 100 |
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paulb@17 | 101 | New in desktop 0.2 (Changes since desktop 0.1)
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paulb@17 | 102 | ----------------------------------------------
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paulb@17 | 103 |
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paulb@18 | 104 | * Added support for waiting for launcher processes.
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paulb@17 | 105 | * Added a tests directory.
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paulb@20 | 106 |
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paulb@20 | 107 | Release Procedures
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paulb@20 | 108 | ------------------
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paulb@20 | 109 |
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paulb@20 | 110 | Update the desktop __version__ attribute.
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paulb@20 | 111 | Change the version number and package filename/directory in the documentation.
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paulb@20 | 112 | Update the release notes (see above).
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paulb@20 | 113 | Update the package information.
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paulb@20 | 114 | Check the release information in the PKG-INFO file.
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paulb@20 | 115 | Check the setup.py file.
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paulb@20 | 116 | Tag, export.
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paulb@20 | 117 | Archive, upload.
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paul@65 | 118 | Update PyPI entry.
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paulb@20 | 119 |
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paulb@20 | 120 | Making Packages
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paulb@20 | 121 | ---------------
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paulb@20 | 122 |
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paulb@20 | 123 | To make Debian-based packages:
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paulb@20 | 124 |
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paulb@20 | 125 | 1. Create new package directories under packages if necessary.
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paulb@20 | 126 | 2. Make a symbolic link in the distribution's root directory to keep the
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paulb@20 | 127 | Debian tools happy:
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paulb@20 | 128 |
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paulb@20 | 129 | ln -s packages/ubuntu-hoary/python2.4-desktop/debian/
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paul@68 | 130 | ln -s packages/ubuntu-feisty/python-desktop/debian/
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paul@68 | 131 | ln -s packages/ubuntu-hardy/python-desktop/debian/
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paulb@20 | 132 |
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paulb@20 | 133 | 3. Run the package builder:
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paulb@20 | 134 |
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paulb@20 | 135 | dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
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paulb@20 | 136 |
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paulb@20 | 137 | 4. Locate and tidy up the packages in the parent directory of the
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paulb@20 | 138 | distribution's root directory.
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