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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Mac-Menubar and Toolbars
From:       "Steven D'Aprano" <dippy () mikka ! net ! au>
Date:       2001-09-07 0:33:32
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Sven Niedner wrote:
> 
> Hi, folks,
> 
> when the Mac menubar is enabled, I  believe that it should be possible
> to dock the toolbars to the screen borders (and have only the toolbars
> for the current application displayed there). Or, alternatively, there
> should be a ceckbox like "Mac style toolbars", meaning that the
> toolbars are always docked to the screen edges and not to the window
> borders.

*Always* docked? I suspect that forcing toolbars way over near the edge
of the screen when your window is over near the other side would be
unhelpful. I've used Mac apps that glue the toolbars in one place and
I've used Mac apps that let you move them, and I vote for movable.

I think it would be nice to dock the toolbars to the edge of the screen
by default, but still leave them movable. And of course, the app should
remember where you last left them.
 
> I remeber that once it was possible to place a toolbar wherever one
> wanted, and this feature has been removed, I think for clarity (since
> it is hard to guess what application a toolbar belongs to).

I disagreed with the decision to remove this feature. I'm happy to admit
that, for the absolute beginner, a proliferation of dozens of floating
toolbars/palettes (to use the Mac terminology) would be confusing. But
the absolute beginner is unlikely to discover by accident that you can
drag toolbars off the window.

In any case, the Mac solves this problem by making floating toolbars
disappear when the app that owns them isn't at the front being used. If
you can't see them, they're hardly going to be confusing.

(On a related note, what terminology do we use to distinguish between
the current app and apps that aren't current? "Background apps"?)


-- 
Steven D'Aprano

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