Rahul Sundaram wrote:
If a single desktop environment wants to just implement something,
they
can go ahead and do so but that doesn't make it a real specification. For
other desktop environments to adopt it, it needs to be a collaborative and
shared effort. Part of that is addressing concerns and bringing more
clarity so that multiple implementations are compatible. Unstated
assumptions lead precisely to the kind of problems you are talking about.
Yet GNOME works exactly the same way with their own specs: They implement
them first, THEN submit them to
freedesktop.org for rubber-stamping (if they
bother submitting them at all, which they didn't always do, either). All the
other desktops are expected to use whatever GNOME developed as is. So it is
extremely unfair for GNOME to boycott a spec coming from other desktop
environments on those very grounds.
It is just a matter of fact that the spec is already implemented as is in 2
major desktop environments (Plasma and Unity) and thus cannot be changed
willy-nilly at the whims of GNOME developers. To properly integrate with the
other desktops, GNOME has no other choice but to implement that spec, and to
implement it as is. Otherwise, GNOME applications will just not work under
Plasma anymore.
Kevin Kofler