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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: "Hide Menubar" proposal
From:       Luke-Jr <luke-jr () utopios ! org>
Date:       2005-02-20 10:50:08
Message-ID: 200502201050.10082.luke-jr () utopios ! org
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On Sunday 20 February 2005 11:11, Maurizio Colucci wrote:
>     I would like to point out a problem with the global menu approach.
> Usually it is better to separate things if possible. Having two distinct
> menus makes it obvious which is a capability of the application, and which
> is a global capability of kde.

Currently, the global menubar in KDE includes the same contents as the 
application menubar does. The only real difference is the location on the 
screen.
I do like the idea of having more than just application menus on the global 
menu bar, though. If done properly, it would be interested to have a 
KDE/Desktop menu, application menus, and finally window-specific menus.

> The advantage of making this distinction less evident is not immediately
> clear to me. Is it only the fact that a global menu is more easily
> reachable? 

It makes more room on the desktop by removing the menus for all applications. 
In general, I only use the menu with the application in focus, so being 
unable to access the menus of the other apps (without changing focus first) 
doesn't bother me.

>
>     On a related note: when an applicaiton starts, how would the user
> realize exactly WHICH new items the application has added to the global
> menu? THe new items could be very well hidden in a sub-submenu, as far as I
> know. How would the user find them? It seem you should, at the very least,
> implement a sophisticated technique for FLASHING and HIGHLIGHTING menu
> items, for the global menu to be useful. But since the K-menu itself
> has been in need of such a thing and still doesn't have it, I doubt the
> new global menu will have it.

I don't think anyone intends to mix global and application menus, so that 
wouldn't be an issue.

>
>
> 3. Menus provde a STATIC arrangement of functionality, and I was hoping
> people would move completely away from them. I created OneFinger to
> show that menus are an obsolete concept:
>
>     (a) they don't scale well as you add items.
>     (b) they are not searchable; you cannot narrow them by typing a
> keyword; (c) they cannot be sorted dynamically according to your needs; (d)
> any *dynamic* changes within them are not immediately apparent and so on.

It's all fine to point out the shortcomings of menus, but can you offer any 
ideas for a usable replacement?

>
>     and now I see everyone re-exumating this concept and make menus even
> more central to KDE. Imagine my discomfort. :-)
-- 
Luke-Jr
Developer, Utopios
http://utopios.org/
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