Re: Panel Menu

[John Sheehan <John Sheehan Sun COM>]

Apologies - for "panel menu" read "menu panel"

John Sheehan wrote
>
>Looking at the new menu bar applet, it seems all the 
>necessary ingredients to replace the panel menu now exist. 
>
>The panel menu can be replaced with an edge panel with a
>menu bar applet on the left (for applications and actions)
>and a clock applet and another menu bar applet on the right
>(for windows).
>
>This would result in some different behaviors:
>
>  - The application menu bar has a different right click
>    behaviour than the application menu on the menu panel.
>    Ideally the former should support this right-click.
>    behavior.
>    
>  - Unlike the clock on the menu panel, the clock applet
>    does not link to a gnome calendar.  
>    
>  - The windows menu bar only shows windows in the current
>    workspace.
>    
>From a documentation point of view, the menu panel and its
>initial contents present a problem - none of the latter even
>have a proper name by which they can be described.  Their
>behaviors are always an exception to the general behaviors
>of panels and applets.  If they are difficult to document,
>they must equally be a usability issue.
>
>Yes, its late in the day, but beta is still a week away.
>I believe that replacing the default panel menu with an
>edge panel is not difficult.  The question is whether this
>a good idea, and in particular whether the functionality
>and quality of the menu bar applet are sufficient stable.
>
>-John
>
>[BTW: can we change the name of the menu bar applet to just
>menu applet please]