[maemo-developers] Making my app. appear on the Navigator menu

[From: Gregory 'guardian' Pakosz]

> So you'd prefer me not to explain my problem as clearly and fully as
> possible? That'll help a lot, won't it?
>

break your question into pieces, it will definitely encourage people 
reading and answering :)

> And by the occasional Nokia person, with presumably a commercial interest in
> making sure that people out in the wide world know how to write software for
> their kit.

by stating you're working on behalf on a customer, you are the one with 
commercial interest in this discussion.

> I've had answers to less than 50% of the questions I've asked. The rest of
> the answers I've had to dig out myself by trial and error.
>

people can't do everything for you ;) also it might be a direct 
consequence of too much questions in a row.

> Sometimes you have to be direct to get a response. And since when is
> pointing out the shortcomings of documentation and community support
> "whining"? I assume Nokia would like to know when there are shortcomings in
> both of these areas. It's quite likely, too, that there are others out there
> with similar problems to mine who simply don't dare shout because of exactly
> this kind of slap-down.
>

my opinion is that information is there.
maybe its access could be improved.

however it's really there and you're silently ignoring the pointers in 
my answer: the "Getting Application to Task Navigator Menu" section of 
the Maemo 3.x tutorial explains about .desktop and .service files, so 
does the "Adding Application To Menu" section of the How to write a new 
application to maemo 3.x document.

> And keeping silent about poor documentation and support won't help Nokia to
> sell non-Windows PDAs. Technology alone never sells itself, despite what
> many techies believe - you need good grass-roots support as well. That
> comes, in part, from there being widespread knowledge about how the
> technology works, and by hiding the complexities of the technology as much
> as possible.
> 

The documentation for what maemo is relying on exists out there: "How to 
write a new application to maemo 3.x document" points to:
   . http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf
   . http://www.gnu.org/software/automake
   . http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext
   . http://www.debian.org/doc/maint-guide/

Maybe it could be more centralized which i guess is trying to be 
achieved by the new howtos on maemo.org:
   . "creating a debian package"
   . "howto make a debian DBG package"

it seems that someone realized that creating an installation package 
wasn't that straightforward for someone who doesn't know about debian 
packages.

> I'm not some rookie fresh out of university. When someone with 24 years of
> development experience, including in embedded software, says a platform is
> difficult to develop on because of poor (or, more likely, poorly organised)
> documentation, it's worth paying attention and not dismissing them out of
> hand.

my guess is that it's exactly what upsets you :(

ok you have experience in development, still once the maemo sdk is 
installed, it's all uphill from there if you don't have knowledge about 
linux development, autotools and debian packages.

>> good luck
> 
> Looks like we'll all need it.
> 
as well as pointers to the good references: the autotools tutorial by 
Alexandre Duret Lutz is one of them, you should get your files deployed 
correctly in no time.

http://www-src.lip6.fr/homepages/Alexandre.Duret-Lutz/autotools.html

hope you'll manage to get your application install smoothly.