Re: menu panel and the macintosh menu bar

[Mark <jamess1 wwnet com>]

Jonathan LaCour wrote:
> 
> A little while ago on a Gnome list, the concept of a MacOS style Menu
> Panel or Menu Applet was suggested, and a patch was submitted.  The patch
> was a bit of a hack, but supposedly worked at least partially.  The
> discussion was taken to gnome-hackers, and this list is now dead.

I'm the person who initiated that recent discussion, and submitted the
patch. I'm not sure the way these things usually procede, this is my
first contribution to the gnome project, but I just assumed that since
there is no more to discuss I would just continue until the new patch is
finished. I guess a timeline of some sort might be helpful. What version
of gnome do the rest of you think this should be targeted at? 1.4? And
about when would this version be released. Also for my future reference
(so I can make a proper patch), what is the coresponding branch in CVS?

> 
> I do not want this concept to die.  Currently, Gnome ships with a "Menu
> Panel".  This panel is novel, and somewhat useful, but serves no real
> purpose. I believe that changing this panel into a MacOS style menu
> swallowing bar would be very useful.  Current panels offer a very
> "windows-ish" feel, and allow for a transition into Gnome from Windows,
> but there is no MacOS transition tool.  I think that many people like the
> idea of a MacOS-like toolbar, and I would hate to see this great feature
> left out of a desktop that is supposed to be inviting to all users.

>From my initial use (my hack), I can tell you I think the macos menu is
a big improvement for gnome. Both in term of usabillity, and looks.
Gnome applications for some reason look signifigantly better without the
menubar in the frame, try it for yourself. Actually using the menu at
the top of the screen takes a bit of getting used to, but is better. The
same thing goes for the programs menu. 

> 
> KDE provides such a menu bar, and will surely gain many MacOS converts.
> For the longest time, I have been looking for a solution like this, and I
> would love to see a developer pick up the project!

I should note that I'm working to make gnome menus work with KDE too.
I'm not sure how many gnome/KDE people there are, but it would probably
be nice for them to have gnome global menus work in KDE and vice versa.

Mark