Re: Fwd: what is the reason for not making epiphany the default browser?

[Michael Ward <michael endbracket net>]

Peter Harvey wrote:
> What is wrong with the zoom widget? I would think that new users would
> be more confused with buttons as there is no concept of "default" or
> "normal" zoom.

Who wants to select "normal" zoom?  If a page's text is too small to
read, I want to increase the font size; if a page's content doesn't all
fit, I might like to decrease the font size.  Is a reference point very
often necessary?

For me, the main advantage of a list of percentages is that I can jump
two or three levels in one go, but this takes two clicks versus one
click on a zoom in or zoom out button.

I never actually use the zoom button, I just tend to disagree that a
list containing many choices is less confusing than a pair of simple
zoom in and zoom out buttons on the tool bar.

I think Evince now defaults to having zoom in and zoom out buttons, or
at least that's my current configuration there.  Ironically this is a
program that /can/ benefit from more precise options such as "original
size" and "fit width", but then I think it also has icons for that, as
well as very easily accessible menu items.

> I would also argue that Edit/Toolbars is perfectly clear. It uses the
> same language as Edit/Preferences. And the default toolbar setup in
> Epiphany is to have two toolbars. I also think that View/PopupWindows
> works too. If I want to see Toolbars, the Statusbar, or PopupWindows I
> used the same checkbox scheme.

Edit->Preferences is a silly place to put a menu in my opinion.
Applications that do the menu bar well have a menu for every major
object that can have actions applied to it (e.g. Program, File, Tabs,
Tools, etc.).  I think they are actually best when thought of as
glorified context menus.  In this case, the preferences either fall
under /Program Name/->Preferences, Program->Preferences, or a top-level
Preferences menu (or why not just "Settings"?).

It's interesting that Apple is going more down this path, while
Microsoft is apparently trying to remove the conventional menu bar (at
least going by the previews of Office 12).

Still, the GNOME human interface guidelines specify Edit->Preferences,
so I can't fault Epiphany for this.  I just wonder if this aspect of the
HIG was devised by somebody more familiar with Netscape Navigator 4 or
some other application that didn't follow any standard closely.