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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Name of Control Center in KDE 4
From:       James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj () acm ! org>
Date:       2007-10-19 3:02:21
Message-ID: 47181E3D.4020007 () acm ! org
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Emil Karlén wrote:
> Chusslove Illich wrote:
> 
>> Thus I would also stick to #4 in this lineup, alternatively suggesting:
>>
>>   5) Settings central
>>
>> (where I think initial cap is somewhat important). Having "central" as
>> noun for a change rings nicely in my ears.
> 
> I vote for "Settings central" (or "Settings Central") too.
> "settings" is the word used by both the desktop environment and
> applications. "central" indicates that many kinds of settings are managed.
> No word that might exclude any kind of settings is used. Maybe this could
> be a problem, if people think that even application settings can be
> managed. But I think (pure speculations, though) that if people see
> a "Settings" menu in the application, that's where they will look
> for "application settings".
> And it rings nice in my ears too :)

Why would: "Settings Manager" be a better choice?

There are three rules for a GUI:

	Be consistent
	Be consistent
	Be consistent

:-D :-D This is a joke, but it is also true.

So, we need to be consistent.  And here it must be noted that having an 
executable called "systemsettings" is not consistent with our past 
practice.  The name of the executable for the Control Center is: 
"kcontrol" it is the "Name" is "Control Center".  This is not in the 
executable but rather in the 'desktop' file.

So, we can settle half of this right away by calling the executable: 
"ksettings" which is a better name than "kcontrol".

Then we could work on the other issue: what to use for the "Name" that 
the GUI will display.  Here we should try to make the names consistent 
with each other.  I notice that we have:

	Package Manager
	User Manager

so it would be consistent to have:

	Settings Manager

We also have:

	SysV-Init Editor

but I don't like:

	Settings Editor

as well although it is OK.

With our system, it is possible to set both the application's: "Name" 
and "GenericName" in the 'desktop' file -- the actual name of the 
executable is/can be totally hidden from the GUI.

So, we should probably stop trying to determine the name for the 
executable based on what we want for the name that the GUI will display. 
  The current name for the executable is a poor choice because it is too 
long and it doesn't start with a 'k'.  We could continue to call it 
"kcontrol' and still have a different name in the GUI, or we could give 
it a new name such as: "ksettings".  It really makes little difference 
since this does not determine the name that will be shown in the GUI.

So, I suggest that the executable be called either: "kcontrol" or 
"ksettings" (I prefer "kcontol" since there is no good reason to change 
it).  This leaves the question of the GUI names as an issue for the 
Usability Department to figure out.  And it is something which should be 
determined so that there is consistency in the GUI names.

-- 
JRT
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