  The creation of specified quantum states is important for most, if not all,
applications in quantum computation and communication. The quality of the state
preparation is therefore an essential ingredient in any assessment of a
quantum-state gun. We show that the fidelity, under the standard definitions is
not sufficient to assess quantum sources, and we propose a new measure of
suitability that necessarily depends on the application for the source. We
consider the performance of single-photon guns in the context of quantum key
distribution (QKD) and linear optical quantum computation. Single-photon
sources for QKD need radically different properties than sources for quantum
computing. Furthermore, the suitability for single-photon guns is discussed
explicitly in terms of experimentally accessible criteria.
