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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Alternative to the KDE start menu
From:       "Claes Andersson" <claes2001 () hotmail ! com>
Date:       2001-08-02 22:23:38
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Hello!

I want to follow up my earlier post on ideas of how to change the KDE "start
menu". Perhaps we are thinking in very narrow circles? Why does it have
to be a menu? Can it not be some kind of application instead? I envision a 
smart
application with integrated html-parser (khtml?). Instead of menu options 
and
submenus like the start menu it parses some html/xhtml-similar file(s) and
shows a view with pictures and links and some text etc. The links does not 
load
other pages but does instead start applications. This "start-app" resides in 
the
corner and is just above the K-button when it is pressed, is attached
there and can not be moved and perhaps not even resized, and "disappears" 
when
you click somewhere else. It does not have a menubar, just a narrow border. 
It
is perhaps as high as the start menu, but twice as wide. Perhaps it has tabs 
at
the top that shows different panes. The main pane holds items like the most
common applications: terminal emulator, web-browser, email, help, run, 
configure
and perhaps some more.

If you click a different tab you get some other view, perhaps a view with 
links
to development tools, or games, or office apps.

I see major advantages with a special application instead of just a menu.
Perhaps the most important one is that it is customizable with well known
techniques. Let anyone design (and publish) "start-app-html-files", or
stylesheets for them. Some can make very newbie-friendly ones, others whith
links to all development tools they want to have easy access to. Let the 
html
in them be able to connect to local backend services if wanted. People that 
are not
skilled in Qt/C++ programming but good at web programming can now use their
skills in perl/php/python whatever and make these services together with a 
page
that can be loaded from this startapp. Like the search engine that searches 
in
man-pages in the help center. But instead it can display results like the 
most
often started apps, or construct "menu hierarchies" according to just about
anyones taste. Or show the latest slashdot headlines for those who want 
that.
And as the pages and services are not Qt/C++-bound, this concept can also be
shared also with GNOME if they want! (Not the start-app itself ofcourse, but 
the
"start-content") But if this sounds like too much, just the possibility to 
render
HTML and start applications with some kinds of links would go a long, long 
way!

Actually, this start app is probably nothing more than a slightly modified
Konqueror instance, but without menus or toolbars, just displaying files in
different tabs, and always available at an easy to find place.

Perhaps this is also similar to the idea Microsoft (sorry for mentioning 
them!)
had with IE 4, in that it changed the appearance of the desktop and made it 
more
web-like. Well, the desktop is always behind everything, eventhough you now 
can
do a minimize all, but this app will instead be in front of everything just 
when
you want it, at the click of a button. From what I have seen of Windows XP 
screenshots, it is somewhat similar to the new startmenu there, or at least 
can be made to look like it.

The downside with this is that such an app will make KDE more resource
hungry, it will use more memory and be slower to show. But I am sure there 
are
ways around this, at least the difference can be made small for those who 
prefer to
load Konqueror anyway. And it can be made optional - old fashioned 
start-menu or
modern start-app? The user uses the same concept - he clicks the same
button - but get a different but still well known experience.

What do you think?

/Claes



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