On 9 Mar 2006, at 22:53, David-John Burrowes wrote:
> For things like gnome-terminal, probably just calling it "Terminal" is
> OK(?)... especially because it calls itself "Terminal" in the title  
> bar
> when it is started.  I do see that it's a bit tricky in many cases to
> determine which to do. I think my rule of thumb would be something  
> like
> "how does this app name itself in the UI, not necessarily what it  
> calls
> its executable".

Okay, I've added "alternative" application menus to the spec, that  
follow this guideline:
http://www.gnome.org/~calum/nevada/ui-spec/index.htm

Let me know what you think.  (I've assumed for now we only want this  
to apply to stuff on the Applications menu.)

>> -  some app names (e.g. gnome-terminal again) will start to expose
>> the "gnome" concept, which JDS has always tried not to do if
>> possible, as historically we've targeted users who shouldn't
>> generally know or care what desktop they're using.
>
> There's an implication there that we want to have the fredom to swap
> GNOME out for some other desktop?

No, just that Joe-bank-clerk / Jo-call-center needn't know or care  
about GNOME... as far as they're concerned, if they need be concerned  
at all, they're running Sun's Java Desktop System.  Why confuse them? :)

The GNOME community themselves have also moved away from any obvious  
uses of the logo or the word "GNOME" on the desktop, FWIW, because in  
reality, most people use some mixture of GNOME/KDE/other random  
applications.

> I think for users that do'nt know what desktop they are using, the
> "gnome" reference will just look weird/quirky... I doubt someone would
> say "oh! i'm using GNOME, but didn't know it before" :-)

Perhaps you're right.  But isn't looking "weird/quirky" reason enough  
not to do it on what should be a polished, professional desktop?

> Maybe so.  I don't really know what that does in detail, so I'm not  
> sure
> what a good name would be.

It's a place where you can enter what amounts to an address book  
entry for yourself (email addresses, phone numbers, IM handles,  
photograph), and change your login password.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum.benson at sun.com            Java Desktop System Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems



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