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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Why the K-Menu sucks
From:       Kurt Granroth <granroth () suse ! com>
Date:       2000-10-29 19:45:51
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Matthias Elter wrote:
> > I don't think it's a good idea to name it with its description, primary.
> > Have you ever seen a menu item for instance called "Cool Drawing
> > Application (Photoshop5.5)" on Win32? I don't think so.
> 
> Thats why the Windows Start menu sucks, too. Ask your mother what
> she will be looking for when she wants to start a mail client from
> the menu. And she wont reply "KMail".

I wonder how many times somebody talks about "asking [their] mother"
vs actually doing so :-P

I actually *did* set my mother up working with email for the first
time a few months ago.  From the experience, I can say with assurance
that:

1) My mother may not be a geek, but she isn't stupid -- if she knows
   that Outlook Express is her mail client, then she will click on
   that icon.
2) My mother doesn't really figure out anything on her own... whatever
   is already working is just fine with her

So let's say I had sat her down in front of two KDE desktops.  One had
KMail listed in the menus as "KMail".  The other had it listed as
"Mail Client".  What would be the difference?

NOTHING!  She may have figured out that "Mail Client" was the one to
click sooner, but she still wouldn't have figured out how to use it.
I would still have had to be there to show her how it works.  But if
that was the case, then I could just as easily pointed out the KMail
was the mail client.

My point is this: if the user in question is enough of a newbie that
he couldn't tell that KMail is a mail client, then that newbie will
not know enough to even USE the client in the first place.

> > But I agree that application names often say nothing about what it
> > actually is.
> > 
> > That's why I suggest to do it like this:
> > 'KMail    (EMail Client)'
> > 'CoolMail (EMail Client)'
> 
> Why? KMail is our standard mail client, so "Mail Client" is just
> perfect. Suffixes are needed only for non standard apps. Or do you
> want to add entries like "Asteroids (KAsteroids)"? 

You are being just a tad on the short-sighted side, here.  KMail may
be our standard mail client now (it's the only one we ship)... but say
Empath (or more likely) Magellan take off in the future and we decide
to ship that one as the "standard mail client".  Now when the user
upgrades to KDE 3.0 and clicks on "Mail Client", a completely
different mail client pops up!

I think hiding information like this from the user is a Really Bad
Idea.  If you are going to go forward with the (IMO unnecessary) step
of putting descriptive titles in the K Menu, then *every* one should
also have the name.  Doing otherwise is just irresponsible.
-- 
Kurt Granroth            | http://www.granroth.org
KDE Developer/Evangelist | SuSE Labs Open Source Developer
granroth@kde.org         | granroth@suse.com
           KDE -- Putting a Friendly Face on Unix

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