Re: [Usability] The Future of Window Borders, Menu Bars, and More

[Steve Lee <steve lee oucs ox ac uk>]

On 29 July 2010 12:33, Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ freenet de> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-07-29 at 18:28 +0800, Allan Caeg wrote:
>
>> Conventions in Windows and OS X are evolving (see the ribbon interface
>> and app buttons on Office, Paint, etc.) while the Linux desktop is
>> limited (probably) because we can't make new things work everywhere
>> (different window managers, desktop environments, etc.).
>>
>> What do we do about this? People involved in the Windicators project
>> (I'm not) may know something that could help.
>

> Ideal long term solution: Have applications (or modules) define their
> commands and options in a more abstract way. With enough weighting and
> relational information that a framework can build menus or ribbons or
> whatever else might come up.

We had a discussion about this a while back for alternative input
devices for accessibility. The assistive technology or accessibility
layer needs to identify and invoke commands/actions in various ways,
perhaps mapping various gestures to them. Currently the a11y APIS
allow you to navigate the UI and find the controls but that is
indirect when what you want is to invoke commands. Thus this effort
would be great for accessibility too.

Steve Lee