Bug#690508: devscripts: .desktop menu item->desktop

[westlake]

Package: devscripts
Version: 2.12.4
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

Apologies if this is not exactly the right place, I have delivered
my concerns to menu-xdg about problems concerning dragNdropping 
menu items to the desktop-- and some of these shortcuts were failing
(notably libreoffice and xfce items)

This is actually the first time I would be concerned at this, but
there's more than one package where this dragNdrop operation has lead
me to wonder if this can be due to the way debian policy is set out
for menu items.

Reason being is I have a package maintainer claiming the +x execute 
bit is not necessary for .desktop links to work but eventually that
package maintainer witnesses a video I posted on how to "enable"
desktop shortcuts from gnome-classic.. and that the +x is actually
a requirement.
(This package maintainer did not know that
desktop shortcut links can be made from the menu in gnome-classic,
after a toggle in Systemtools/preferences/advancedsettings needs to
be enabled first)

I posted this message here because even after a couple of responses
from this package maintainer, they still think +x is not needed
in order for .desktop links to work.. and since some of you from this
package team are closer to debian policy knowledge than others, 
I thought i might raise either an issue or concern that
there's possibly a bug or policy conflict about how .desktop shortcuts
should be handled from the desktop? 
( I noticed the devscripts package description mentions something
about .desktop skeleton so it encouraged me to file something here )

I'm not familiar with any debian policy of how .desktop files are
to be handled, but if this package maintainer insists +x isn't needed
for .desktop files on the desktop then something is really wrong
because I can illustrate very clearly from the following two videos that
a successful dragNdrop results with +x, taking all +x bit away changes
the desktop icon to a nonfunctional one..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxN-yDuCTus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57HvGS3Gdmo

(I've delivered a bug report to menu-xdg, but feel there may be another party
interested in seeing why more than 1 package is failing to make proper
..desktop files on the desktop and more towards a debian policy thing-- but
I'm not familiar about debian policies and perhaps somebody here would see
if the problem exists below menu-xdg)
(trivia matter atm-- bugreported also to libreoffice and xfce, so i bug
reported to other certain parties in due respect)

Thank you for any feedback.. again I apologize if this is more of a 
nuissance than of any help.. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this..


-- Package-specific info:

--- /etc/devscripts.conf ---

--- ~/.devscripts ---
Not present

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_CA.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages devscripts depends on:
ii  dpkg-dev  1.16.8
ii  libc6     2.13-35
ii  perl      5.14.2-13
ii  python    2.7.3~rc2-1

Versions of packages devscripts recommends:
ii  at                        3.1.13-2
ii  dctrl-tools               2.22.2
ii  debian-keyring            2012.06.01
ii  dput                      0.9.6.3
ii  equivs                    2.0.9
ii  fakeroot                  1.18.4-2
ii  gnupg                     1.4.12-4+b1
ii  libcrypt-ssleay-perl      0.58-1
ii  libdistro-info-perl       0.10
ii  libjson-perl              2.53-1
ii  libparse-debcontrol-perl  2.005-3
ii  libsoap-lite-perl         0.714-1
ii  liburi-perl               1.60-1
ii  libwww-perl               6.04-1
ii  lintian                   2.5.10.2
ii  man-db                    2.6.2-1
ii  patch                     2.6.1-3
ii  patchutils                0.3.2-1.1
ii  python-debian             0.1.21
ii  python-magic              5.11-2
ii  sensible-utils            0.0.7
ii  strace                    4.5.20-2.3
ii  unzip                     6.0-7
ii  wdiff                     1.1.2-1
ii  wget                      1.13.4-3
ii  xz-utils                  5.1.1alpha+20120614-1

Versions of packages devscripts suggests:
ii  bsd-mailx [mailx]            8.1.2-0.20111106cvs-1
ii  build-essential              11.5
pn  cvs-buildpackage             <none>
pn  devscripts-el                <none>
ii  gnuplot                      4.6.0-8
pn  libauthen-sasl-perl          <none>
ii  libfile-desktopentry-perl    0.04-3
pn  libnet-smtp-ssl-perl         <none>
pn  libterm-size-perl            <none>
ii  libtimedate-perl             1.2000-1
pn  libyaml-syck-perl            <none>
ii  mutt                         1.5.21-6.2
ii  openssh-client [ssh-client]  1:6.0p1-3
pn  svn-buildpackage             <none>
ii  w3m                          0.5.3-8

-- no debconf information