> Docs would refer to them as "The Global Menu" and > "The Panel". The 'applets' on the menu all behave like menu items (you > can navigate between all after a single click on one of them; there's no > context menu and you use a capplet to configure it). > "The Panel" holds the applets that don't work as menu items. You can add > applets to it,
That's precisely what I meant. For clearing up the confusion, I would suggest calling the menu-like applets 'Global menu extensions' or 'Global menu plugins', and leaving 'applet' for the panel thing. I think that's the most reasonable approach. > and advanced users could create extra panels too (though > I think ideally they shouldn't have to. I don't see people asking for > extra docks on OS X, for example, even though it has a number of > usability problems). It may be a bit off topic, but amazingly enough, some people *do* ask for extra docks. A couple of utilities out there do that, but I don't think any of them is actually much used. I think that's a reminiscence from OS 9. When people first went from OS 9 to OS X thought of the Dock as a sort of Launchpad, which it isnt, and that's why they wanted various docks. Anyway, just as independent developers can create 'extra' docks in OS X i'm sure that they would be able to create 'extra' panels or even panel replacements for those unhappy with having 'only' one panel. Now again, being realistic, I think the GNOME developers would be quite reluctant to implement this idea. It looks like taking features away. And in a way it is... The currrent state of the GNOME panel is quite a bad case of creeping featurism. IMHO, that is. Rafa.- _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
