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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: konqueror's location menu
From:       Waldo Bastian <bastian () kde ! org>
Date:       2000-05-30 22:48:33
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On Tue, 30 May 2000, Stefan Taferner wrote:

> > IMHO application designers should start to think about making
> > sensible decisions instead of blindly following a standard which
> > doesn't always apply.
> 
> From a user interface point of view there are (at least) two approaches
> possible:
>
> * Either name all menus according to what they are for. This would
>   be Folder, Message, .... in kmail for example

> * Or use standard menu names: File, Edit, ...
>
> We all deceided long ago to go the second way, so  please do it.

??? KMail has both File and Edit as well as Folder and Message.

> Waldo was very active in designing the GUI standard. What now?

He changed File to Location in konqueror :-)

> Kick it out of the window now that it does not exactly fit?

The Style Guide is just that, a guide. For a lot of applications a File menu 
makes sense, for Konqueror it is not (see the discussion about it on 
kfm-devel) 

> A standard is to make things look and feel the same. Even if it does
> not always fit.

If it doesn't fit it is time to start thinking why it doesn't fit. In the 
case of konqueror a File menu didn't fit because it created ambuigity.
Konqueror is all about Location's (URLs).. you can browse from location to 
location. Now, sometimes a Location is a File, and sometimes a Location is a 
directory containing files. The problem with the File menu was that it 
contained options that sometimes referred to the Location being a File, 
sometimes to the Location being a Directory and sometimes to a File within a 
Directory. Changing the menu name from File to Location takes away that 
ambuigity. It also made it clear that some options in the File menu actually 
didn't belong there.

Cheers,
Waldo

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