Comment 8 for bug 1553156

> I wonder if the generator could do something about that like search for the Exec= binary - ximion?

Nope, because this would mean searching the *reverse dependencies* of a package, or once again turning to the Contents file, which is always bead, because, as you know, it's super-slow.
While I see a case for searching dependencies for icons, in case of the .desktop file I would rather add an additional check to the generator to ignore the component if .desktop file and binary are not in the same package, because that happening is a bug. The .desktop file and the binary must be together, so the application only shows up in menus when it is actually installed.
Otherwise, if people only have -common installed for some reason, they will get a dead link in the menu.
Just like we don't separate manpages and binaries, .desktop files and binaries belong together too.

So, maybe we want a check for this in the generator (priority error), which is pretty easy to do...
(I am also wondering if there is policy for this... I'll do some research on what is common practice there, probably lintian should check if binary+.desktop-file+metainfo are together in one package, unless there are cases where separating is actually useful (can't think of any right now)).