On 21/03/11 12:01, Mitja Pagon wrote: > First it's not all about choice, second if application has menus users > never use, should that application have menus at all? But that is not a > problem that should be solved on a "shell" level, it's up to > applications to improve their interfaces.
Surely it *is* the responsibility of any shell developers to clean up
the shell, rather than simple expose the bad UI 'choices' of application
developers (or rather tool-kit developers). This is precisely what
Unity's global-menu does, it exposes the menu toolbar for all
applications which support it. This is *not* always appropriate.
The menu toolbar is an efficient means of organising a large number of
options (though it could be prettier). Which is excellent for
applications like LibreOffice where a large number of menu items need
(arguably) to be exposed. However for internet browsers, media players
and similar applications the menu toolbar often serves as a /locus/ for
advanced and rarely used menu options, whilst the more commonly used
options are incorporated into the UI proper. Furthermore, Firefox 4.0's
'firefox button' is a very good example of how to fit a lot of menu
options into a organised grid exposed by a single button. This, in my
view, is a far more efficient means of exposing menus IMHO (it could
even be well suited to LibreOffice). This approach has one further
advantage for Unity; it merges (if implemented correctly) the
application title and the global-menu into a single, compact panel item
(a single /locus/ where the end-user can both identify which application
is active, and access its menus).
Kind Regards,
Lee Hyde.
--
"There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"
-- Dr. Jonas Stalk, on being asked who owned the patent for his polio
vaccine
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