%versiondata; ]> The Debian Menu sub-policy Chris Waters xtifr@dsp.net Joey Hess joey@kitenet.net Joost Witteveen joostje@debian.org The Debian Policy mailing List debian-policy@lists.debian.org version &version;, &date; This manual describes the policy requirements for the Menu system used in the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. This document is part of the policy package for Debian. The policy package itself is maintained by a group of maintainers that have no editorial powers. At the moment, the list of maintainers is:

Julian Gilbey J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk

Manoj Srivastava srivasta@debian.org

 Copyright ©1999 .

This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as /usr/doc/copyright/GPL in the Debian GNU/Linux distribution or on the World Wide Web at . You can also obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

About this document

The latest copy of this document can be found at ftp.debian.org /debian/doc/package-developer/menu-policy.txt.gz

This document has been extracted and separated from the Menu package to:

Increase the visibility of the Menu sub policy

Reduce the coupling between policy and implementation. If this separation is not made, every time we want to change menu policy, we have to arrange to get the maintainer to release a new version of the package, even if the package has not otherwise changed. It also involves yet another layer, making the policy changes that much harder to implement.

Menu Structure

If you have a package which doesn't fit within the existing menu hierarchy, please bring it up on the debian-devel mailing list. If you have other proposals for changing the menu hierarchy, or making other changes to menu policy, please bring it up on debian-policy.

Preferred menu structure

Here is the authoritative list of Debian's menu structure. Please do not put your packages into any other sections without asking for permission first!

Apps

normal applications

Databases

interactive database programs

Editors

text editors, word processors

 Emulators

wine, dosemu, etc.

 Graphics

image manipulation

 Hamradio

anything relating to ham radio

 Math

math related programs

 Net

network programs that don't fit elsewhere

 Programming

debuggers, etc.

 Tools

simple apps, like clocks, that perform only one task

 Technical

technical stuff

 Text

text oriented tools other than editors

 Shells

bash, ksh, zsh, etc.

 Sound

sound players and editors

 Viewers

image viewers

 System

system administration and monitoring tools

Games

games and recreations

Adventure

walk around virtual space, zork, MOO's, etc

 Arcade

any game where reflexes count

 Board

games played on a board

 Card

games involving a deck of cards

 Puzzles

tests of ingenuity and logic

 Sports

games derived from "real world" sports

 Strategy

games involving long term strategic thinking

 Tetris-like

games involving falling blocks

 Toys

amusements, eye-candy, etc.

Help

programs that provide user documentation

 Screen

programs that affect the whole screen

Lock

programs to lock the screen

 Save

screen savers

 Root-window

things that fill the root window

WindowManagers

X window managers

Modules>

window manager modules

XShells

xterm and its brethren