Hi, On Fri, Oct 25, 2002 at 12:09:33PM +0200, Marek Habersack wrote: > On Fri, Oct 25, 2002 at 02:23:13PM +0900, Miles Bader scribbled: > > Luke Seubert <ls.maillist@verizon.net> writes: > > > > In all cases I think it is imperative that all menus available in > > > > Debian be auto-generated acording to the installed packages. > > > > > > Certainly the advanced menu would fit this criteria. > > > > > > However, the Basic Menu needs to be kept utterly simple, otherwise, it > > > defeats the purpose of such a menu in the first place. > > > > Are `utterly simple' and `auto-generated acording to the installed > > packages' incompatible? > > > > Even if the set of apps in a Basic Menu were hand-tailored (as may be > > necessary), it should at least automatically remove anything that isn't > > installed. > if the vFolder stuff is used, then I imagine it would be possible to tag > entries as "basic", "advanced", "deluxe" etc.? > > > Anyway, I think of a Basic Menu as being more like a filter through > > which the normal menus are passed, rather than a totally separate thing. > Definitely. It's a filter for a newbie user so that they don't get confused. > And as with every filter, one can easily remove it and enjoy the full glory > of the menus. There's been lots of talk about advanced vs. basic users, and there's still the issue of wether to say "Web browser" vs. "Mozilla". (warning: upstream support necessary; not Debian specific) What about this. A menu has generic items such as 'Web browser'. These items are ordinary ones, not groups of any kind; left clicking just launches the configured application. /Right/ clicking, however, shows you a sub menu that looks like this: Properties... Delete ----------------- v Mozilla Galeon Netscape Phoenix This could be implemented by removing most of the distinction between a groups and leaf nodes. Or simply by adding specialized submenus that are accessed by right clicking for ordinary items. The submenu would always contain Properties... and Delete, possibly even "Add new item", "Move up", "Move down". This makes manipulations of the menu object local to the object itself instead of adding a separate dedicated menu editor application, which is IMHO better from a UI standpoint. Below the line you'd have a selection of alternative programs, using their real names, for the item in question. Left clicking just launches the exact program, but right clicking selects it as the active alternative. This way, you can both easily switch "Web browsers" and have access to other browsers if you need them incidentally. Possibly, some script could be provided to reset all selections to a certain set of defaults, eg. "KDE", "Gnome", or even "Debian Default". Lastly, a global option could be provided, like this: What should be displayed in the menus? (o) Generic name eg. Web browser ( ) Selected program name eg. Mozilla ( ) Both eg. Web browser (Mozilla) I think having something like this would solve most of the basic/intermediate/advanced user related issues. Cheers, Emile. -- E-Advies / Emile van Bergen | emile@e-advies.info tel. +31 (0)70 3906153 | http://www.e-advies.info
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