Re: one question and one proposal

[Bruno Widmann <bwidmann tks fh-sbg ac at>]

On Wed, 17 Jun 1998, Tom Vogt wrote:
> George <jirka@5z.com> wrote:
> 
> > used apps and where to put/swallow some useless things like clock or the
> > cpu monitor or a cdplayer .... since there is quite a lot of things that
> > are to be presented .. it makes sense to put them all in a menu ... and
> > where to put the menu ... on the panel ... makes a lot of sense to me
> > ....
> 
> I do absolutely agree. what bothers me is that the default puts everything
> into ONE menu. this is - according to about everything I have read on the
> subject - a bad user interface design.
> 

i also think that way. Especially since you can't get rid of that one-menu
... "main menu applet" (is it called that way? or gnome-menu? obviously 
not start)

sorry about nit-picking around at such UI-details ... it's just that
i don't love the concept of the "start" (or K) button either.

> one idea - probably not the best, though - would be to instead divide things
> up, according to function, into three menus. call one "panel control" and
> put the configuration menus under it, you could probably save a level of
> cascading menu if done right this way. call the second one "system" and put
> the system-control apps there, again you could probably save a level. call
> the second one "applications" and put everything else there.

interesting idea. The one Objection i have is that i wan't to customize my
panel and not put folder's there with stuff in it that i seldom use. What 
this get's you is that you would have 3 instead of 1 item that the user
can't remove, if they don't wan't to have it on their panel.

I'll make another suggestion. Maybee if we get to the weak spot of all
sort's of solutions, we'll finally know "The best thing to do"

The right-click menu of the panel currently shows:
___________________________
|                          |
| This panel properties... |  
| Global properties...     |
| Add main menu applet     |
|--------------------------|
| Log out                  |
`--------------------------'

Why not change it to:

___________________________
|                          |
| This panel properties... |
| Global properties...     |
|--------------------------|
| Run                   >> |  (could also be called "Start" ... 
|--------------------------|   but maybee that's no good idea)
| Add                   >> |
|--------------------------|
| Lock Screen              |
| Log out                  |
`--------------------------'


Under "Add" you put the same thing as under "Panel" in the "Main Menu
Applet" (ok, i know now what it's called)

Under "Run" you put all the Item's that now are above "Panel" in the
"Main Menu Applet"

This "Run" would of course only be used for application's that you don't
run often... Or as a last resort, when someone removes all of the menus /
applets from your panel.

So you can get rid of that "one button that does everyting" alltoghether,

Of course people converting over from win32 will have a harder time at
first ... but you can just as well make a nice 'default configuration'

Add a Menu "Applications", which contain's the same as "Run" above, but
make it removable. That way win32 convert's won't be confused at first.

Applet's / submenus could be just as easily added to the panel ... right
click on the panel and chose "Add". Also, that way you save the redundant
entry of "Log out".

Also, the default config should include the log-out and help buttons ...