In the Maemo 4.0 Tutorial, section "Integrating Applications to maemo Framework", there is an example desktop file with the line:

X-Osso-Service=org.maemo.example_libosso

But when I take a look at the examples provided by Nokia, only the application name is stated here:

X-Osso-Service=maemopad

But which one is correct, the "long" term or the "short" term?

Which confuses me even more is a statement found in the documentation of osso_initialize(): [1]

"Note that the D-BUS service name will be 'com.nokia.application', where 'application' is the value you gave as the parameter. Note also that this argument must be identical to the X-Osso-Service value in the desktop file, or the D-BUS daemon will kill your application."

Mixing this all together, I come to the conclusion that the "short" X-Osso-Service line is correct (because the argument of osso_initialize() must be identical to this value) and calling a DBUS service "org.maemo.example_libosso" is wrong, because it must be "com.nokia.example_libosso" instead.

Is this correct?

[1] http://maemo.org/api_refs/4.0/libosso/index.html

I'm not a developer so take my words as guesswork but I believe the long form is correct and due to a bug, all DBUS interfaces have to begin with com.nokia.

well in my previous port i have used org.anidel.xournal and it worked.
in the last version, having read the same document, i've switched to com.nokia.xournal.

i do not have the sources at hand right now, but as soon as i will, i will post the pieces of interest.

btw, why don't you post the question on the maemo-developers ml as well?

Good idea, just did that.

In the meantime I found these interesting messages regarding this issue:

http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail//ma...er/013090.html
http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail//ma...er/013113.html
http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail//ma...er/013115.html

Two excepts:

"How consistent is that ? Where is the logic ?

A single, correct, working example in the right place would save
man-months of hair-pulling."

"This is all very frustrating. I think it's bad for the app portfolio of
the tablet, and its users in general, when amateur programmers like me
have to spend hours after their program is finished, just to understand
how to put its icon in a menu and actually get it launched from there...
all because of an arcane and somewhat under-documented packaging system
that's only really grokable if you have a good experience of Linux and
Gnome beforehand.

I'm willing to persevere, but I guess most normal people trying to port
their useful or fun little python app to their tablet would have given
up by now."

yeah, i've spent more time on packaging Xournal than actually porting it...