Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] [patch] add icon to nautilus context menu

[Colin Walters <walters verbum org>]

On Fri, 2003-08-15 at 13:05, Joshua Haberman wrote:

> I don't think this holds, because you don't directly interact with the 
> innards of your computer in the course of normal operation, you interact 
> with applications.  People have referred to applications by name for as 
> long as there have been personal computers, 

That's true.  It is a legacy of the fact that proprietary software has
to have some way to distinguish itself, because people have to acquire
it separately.  With free software, we can create an integrated system
where everything is just standardized and users don't have to learn
these names.

> and it has never been a 
> problem. 

I wouldn't say that's true.  In the original discussion of changing the
menu entries to be purpose oriented, people brought up a number of
examples; one being someone's grandmother who had heard of "the web",
but didn't know what "Internet Explorer" was for.  Likewise, she would
have a lot of trouble guessing that "WinAmp" plays music.  And
"Outlook"?

>  Rhythmbox is certainly 
> more catchy than "Media Player," and more specific.

We were discussing "Music Player", not "Media Player".

> "Media Player" is also more namespace-polluting.  Even if you stipulate 
> that Rhythmbox is the single sanctioned app of its type for GNOME, it 
> isn't particularly fit for quickly playing a single file, and it doesn't 
> do video at all.  

Right, that's because it's a Music Player, not a Media Player :)

> But even that can be confusing 
> because if the user *does* know what Rhythmbox is, they could (at least 
> I would) wonder just what "Media Player's" music library I was adding 
> something to. 

OS distributors targeting nontechnical users should ensure that only one
is installed by default, so there is no chance for confusion.

But anyways, this issue could be addressed with some minor modifications
to the menu system as I mentioned in my reply to Benjamin.