On Tuesday 19 June 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:
> We certainly could. One thing I've learned from my macbook is that toolbars
> really should have the absolute minimum of items (and KDE is a *terrible*
> example).

Oh no, not this again.  Ubuntu has a specially hacked "File Browsing" 
Konqueror profile that's super minimalist, and doesn't trouble users with all 
that confusing unpleasantness.  It drove me EFFING NUTS until I figured out 
how to obliterate it, and revert it to KDE defaults.  I don't use all the 
controls on the KDE default, but I very regularly use a lot of the controls 
that were missing from the minimalist Ubuntu version (and they weren't 
available as insertable items from the toolbar editor either; they were just 
carted off and hidden under a rock so as to avoid confusing users with 
functionality.)

We have a lot of toolbar icons, and I personally use damn near every one of 
them on a regular basis.  Just for kicks, see the attachment.  I got rid of 
all the main window icons I never use.  I bet we'd fight for weeks over a few 
of the ones I've nixed.

Not coincidentally, the majority of the icons I've left are icons I put there 
myself, and since I chipped in to do it myself, I got to vote for what I 
wanted to see.

Finally, icons are necessary because our menus are wretched things to 
navigate.  Nobody can come up with a good way to organize this, except to 
eliminate the more esoteric actions that are rarely uses.  The problem is 
every action is there because somebody wanted it, and implemented it.  When 
you design by committee, and when your labor force is largely motivated by 
personal self-interest, something like Rosegarden is the result.

On the bright side, Guillaume, if you look at real notation software like 
Sibelius or Finale, we could take a few pages out of their book, but we do 
not look as disorganized and amateurish by comparison as you'd probably 
think.

-- 
D. Michael McIntyre 

<<attachment: toolbar.jpg>>

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