On 8/10/07, Sas(o Kiselkov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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> David Chisnall wrote:
> > Since 0.3 is our 'make it pretty' release, one of the things that
> > needs some serious work is the menu. Currently, it has the following
> > issues:
> >
> > - Font and highlight colour are both ugly. I believe Jesse is
> > working on this?
>
> As far as I remember the font is the default system font. The color was
> randomly chosen by me, since the menubar implementation was a proof of
> concept and since then the implementation hasn't changed very much.
>
> >
> > - Tear-off hook at the top makes all mouse movements for selecting
> > menus bigger, and looks ugly. Can we at least move this to the
> > bottom of the menu?
>
> I didn't get this one...
Current submenu from menu bar has a menu title without any text on it.
I think David is suggesting to hide the menu title under the menu bar
so user won't see it.
A side-effect would be that users have nothing to tear-off the submenu.
>
> >
> > - When you have a submenu as the top menu item, it looks like the
> > whole thing is one fat menu. Apple fix this by having a special case
> > that nudges the submenu down a few pixels. Can we do this?
>
> Actually, I like consistent behavior far better even at the cost of a
> little 'few pixels' aesthetic discrepancy.
I think David is referring to recent shadow support of Etoile.
On mac, you will notice the submenu of submenu look
a littie bit closer to users and casting a shadow on submenu.
And they have a small overlapping to each other.
In GNUstep, the submenu are on the same level so it looks flat.
>
> >
> > Are there any other important issues? I'd like to get an idea of
> > what we need to fix before 0.3 soon.
>
> I find the menu bar is pretty well functional as it is now. We should
> pay more attention to other stuff, such as the tabbed shelf. Apple went
> on to redesign the menubar in Leopard and we all know how terribly it
> went. All in all, I find this trend toward adding functionality a bit
> wrong - I think we should be asking ourselves which parts of the menubar
> to clarify, simplify and unite, instead of finding ways to differentiate
> behaviors (such as as adding the 'few pixels off' trick if the menu item
> is the first one) - its simpler to code and debug, and simpler to
> understand for users. At least for me, most of the time what I look for
> in UIs is this (in order of importance):
>
> - - functionality
> - - simplicity
> - - aesthetics
Since you mention tabbed shelf, I have a proposal in terms of Etoile desktop.
I believe that other than menu bar,
we only have space for one other system-level stuff on desktop,
either dock or tabbed shelf, not both.
Dock is more like application switcher
while tabbed shelf is more like application launcher.
But they also have some functions from each other.
So here is my proposal:
1. The application switcher part is in a Expose-like layer,
which can be brought up by "Alt-Tab' or mouse on a corner of screen.
That layer hopefully shows all open windows, minimized window,
and probably a row of running application icon on the bottom.
If possible, the application icon on the bottom also shows some
limited information, like unread mail, just like GNUstep app icon.
2. The application launcher or tabbed shelf can stay on the border of desktop.
Users can put whatever stuff on it and auto-hide it.
As the result of above proposal:
1. If you launch an application which is not on the tabbed shelf,
it will not appear on tabbed shelf. In another word, the tabbed shelf
will not expand and shrink according to running application.
2. If you launch an application which is also on the tabbed shelf,
we can add a hint on it to show this application is already running.
3. Minimized window will disappear from the desktop. It will not go
into tabbed shelf. To see minimized window, use 'Alt-Tab' or
move mouse to corner to see them. Same applies to hidden application,
unless that application is already in tabbed shelf.
In short, tabbed shelf (application launcher) is
where users organize things themselves.
If users do nothing, tabbed self stays static.
Users can use their spacial memory to do things fast.
Application switcher layers are organized by Etoile
according to current running applications.
So it changes dynamically and users' spacial memory is less useful here.
Any comment ?
There is one thing I like, but does fit into this proposal:
I would like to have a space to list 10 most frequently used applications.
I believe it serves most people's need as application launcher.
Since it is automatically organized by the system,
it should not stay in tabbed shelf.
But on the other hand, not all of them will be running all the time,
so they do not deserve to stay in application switcher-layer.
Only running applications stay in application switcher-layer.
Maybe we can have smart tab on tabbed shelf for such thing,
but it will break the notion that tabbed shelf should be organized
by users only.
Anyway, just a thought for the desktop space.
Yen-Ju
>
> - --
> Saso
>
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