Standards
There are various documents detailing how different bits of the desktop work:
- Configuration system
- Describes where to load and save user preferences and allows layers of preferences (such that user preferences override system-wide preferences and so on).
- Application directories
- A system for distributing applications in a form that can be run without the need to install anything. The application program remains completely self-contained.
Freedesktop.org
- The X Desktop Group has links to various standards that are common to several desktops, and develops new ones. Lots of interesting work is going on here.
- This protocol allows the user to save by dragging data from a program to a filer.
There is a test application here: