Re: [desktop] why kde and gnome's menu situation sucks
On Fri, Oct 25, 2002 at 09:43:41PM -0400, Luke Seubert wrote:
> On 10/25/2002 6:47 AM, Emile van Bergen at emile-deb@evbergen.xs4all.nl
> wrote:
> > 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.
> >
> > 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.
> >
> Hmm, this is tempting. I like the notion of removing the need to go into a
> graphical menu editor to do the things you are suggesting. Maybe the pain
> of right clicking to do such things wouldn't be so bad. I am not totally
> convinced your position is the way to go, but it does have its tempting
> aspects. It is a very creative and clever idea, that's for sure.
Ok, I swore I wasn't going to get involved with this thread, but...
Where you have a menu item "Web Browser (Galeon)", would it be useful, if
you hold your mouse over it, for it to popup another menu "Related Programs"
which would list other web browsers. This require some work with
categorisation to make it useful. How often are you looking through menus
finding only programs similar to what you want.
Note this also removes the distinction between submenus and leaf nodes.
Besides, there is no rule that a program appear in only one place in the
menu. For example, a scanning program could have both the hardware
configuration wizard and the Gimp as related programs. That relieves you of
having to look for them elsewhere, without cluttering up all your main
menus.
I do beleive the Windows allows you to right click on items in the start menu
and do things. It certainly allows you to drag items on and off it.
--
Martijn
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