Re: Debian menus policy
On Fri, Dec 14, 2001 at 11:29:07AM -0500, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> On Fri, 2001-12-14 at 11:15, Craig Dickson wrote:
> > Thomas Hood wrote:
> >
> > > But programs that are data-oriented also have functions, and
> > > so belong in the function-oriented tree too. I don't see any
> > > reason why a program should not appear in multiple places in
> > > the menu hierarchy. A program might even appear multiple times
> > > in one of the two trees---if it has several functions or if
> > > it operates on several kinds of object.
> >
> > But then you have a much larger tree. I think one of the goals of the
> > menu design, considering how many programs people can have on their
> > machines, is to keep the tree fairly minimal. You want everything to be
> > in the tree, but if many things are in the tree more than once, the tree
> > gets too big. Also, less-sophisticated users will find it confusing;
> > they'll wonder if the A in editing->text is the same A that is in
> > text->editors, and they'll bombard debian-user with questions about why
> > things are duplicated.
>
> Here I have to disagree. From experience with lusers, I've found that
> they rarely understand organization of items in menues. For them,
> redundancy is a good thing. It makes it easier for them to find what
> they're looking for. They might not even think to look for any kind of
> "text editor", be it editors->text or text->editors, but they might
> think to look for office->text. Similarly, tho, if I'm looking for Vi,
> the last place I'd check is a menu called "office."
>
> The more ways to get to soemthing, the easier it is to find.
Having some redundancy at the leafs if a program fits into multiple
places is good. If XMMS has support for both audio mpegs and video
mpegs then I would expect it to show up in both audio and video
sections.
Having redundancy at the root levels may be ok if it's configurable
and you normally only have one shown. It gives more choice, although
it may not outweigh the increased complexity.
Having multiple menu systems all show at once (eg editors->text and
text->editors) is nothing but confusing, and is akin to the debian
menus vs gnome menus thing that started all this. The only reason I
have both enabled is that many programs only show up in one of them.
--
Adam Olsen, aka Rhamphoryncus
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