> The solution used by Gentoo for installing KDE3 and KDE4 in
> parallel was to filter the
> $PATH variable in startkde by using sed--if the startkde
> for KDE3 was invoked, KDE4 
> directories would be filtered out of the path, and
> vice-versa. That fixes most of the 
> problems you describe (invoking a KDE4 application while
> running KDE3/Trinity 
> does require the full path to be given, but that's a minor
> flaw compared to not knowing 
> which app you're going to be getting), although I admit it
> isn't elegant.

A challenge with that solution is when KDE4 apps are installed in /usr/bin. Tough to filter that location from the $PATH variable. :) I'm curious how that was achieved, unless in Gentoo KDE4 executables are installed someplace unique rather than /usr/bin.

I mentioned the *.desktop files. I haven't thought of a smooth or slick way to update those files on-the-fly when building packages. But in my proposed revised starttde script (bug report 675), I revised everything to full paths to avoid conflicts with KDE4 because that was exactly what was happening to me.

I'm starting to think that not using full paths in files such as the *.desktop files is an old habit that works a significant majority of the time but probably is a bad habit nonetheless.

Perhaps anything that gets installed in a non standard location like /opt should be built to use full paths everywhere? :)

Darrell