>>>>> "M" == Mattias Eriksson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
M> I must agree with Locke on most of his points, even if I don't
M> like to be as hard on you as he.
Add me to the list ;) ... I haven't used KDE since Helix 1.0 mostly because
of the issues Mattias raises. I have KDE2 installed, but until KDevelop
is ported, it is not much use to me. I don't mind carrying qt2 or even
offering KDE as an option for other users around here, but it would be
nice if there was a bit more user-friendliness in the menus.
M> ...they are too deep, if you only have the programs
M> you use installed they are all in it's own subdir.
And is it my imagination, or do I get a lot of things in the menu which
are not installed?
M> Another problem I mentioned above is the zillion programs doing
M> the same thing...
I have the same experience with novice users; anyone who knows the difference
between multiple versions is probably not using a start menu anyway.
I realize this is a KDE-dev thing and out of our scope here, but what
I would like to see is to drop the whole concept of a system-wide
menu. Instead, the default menu would be almost completely empty; to
populate it, you open some grand selector panel that mirrors the
structure of the package manager where you can see the structure of
the menus and the RPM description of each tool. People could browse
the structure and drag and drop only what they need.
This solves two problems: It reduces start menu clutter, and it also
removes that annoying exclusionist property of the start menu where
what you see is what you must get; if the user chooses every item, it
is then possible for the user to rearrange and delete any item as time
goes on. Right now, (I haven't tried this in KDE2, so maybe I am out
of line here) 90% of the start menu can only be changed by root.
This could also be extended to solve another problem I have had since
the days of fvwm and xfm: You could show all the binaries in
/usr/local/bin (or /opt/bin or whatever) as under a virtual package so
users can browse the locally installed software and add those to their
start menu. Yes, I know you can do this by drag-and-drop from kfm,
but a dedicated tool could also have options to try standard query
commands such as "app --help" to help identify programs.
M> If your favourite tool doesn't make it you should have used a
M> more powerfull installation variant.
Don't forget that people learn. They are actually quite good at
learning. The failure of the Mac/Windows interface is that, while it
is excellent for beginners, it does not grow with you, but grows
against you. I have lost track of the number of 2-years-experience
Windows users I have seen working with unmanageably huge start menus.
Again, it is a KDE issue, but wouldn't it be neat if you could right
click on the KEdit item and see an option that says "alternates", and
when you select it, the menu item rolls around to the 'next best'
alternative like the license plates on James Bond's Austin Martin?
--
Gary Lawrence Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723
T(C)Inc Business Innovations through Open Source http://www.teledyn.com
M:I-3 - Documenting the Linux kernel: http://kernelbook.sourceforge.net
