Re: [evolution-patches] fix for 57653 : toolbar visibility

[William Jon McCann <mccannwj pha jhu edu>]

JP Rosevear wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-05-03 at 18:08 -0400, Anna M Dirks wrote:
>
> > Hi Jon,
> >
> > On Mon, 2004-05-03 at 17:40 -0400, William Jon McCann wrote:
> >
> > > JP Rosevear wrote:
> > >
> > > > So I'm fine for this patch, except for the fact i prefer the "Toolbar"
> > > > menu item to be at the bottom after a separator.  This will require some
> > > > slight twiddling of the the component merging.  Doable?
> >
> > Let's back up here a moment. 
> >
> > It would seem to me that this option should be located in the menus in
> > the same general area as the controls which allow you to change the
> > current view. This has the benefit of locating all menuitems of similar
> > scope in the same section of the view menu, which should make them
> > easier to understand and find. 
>
>
> All the view menu items change the current view though.  I thought that
> perhaps tool bar was different because its more generic and applies
> across all views rather that just the views of the current component
> type.

It seems that most other GNOME programs locate this option at the top of 
the View menu (see gedit, ephiphany, eog, etc.).  OpenOffice locates it 
three from the top.  Firefox / Mozilla locate the show toolbar, sidebar, 
and status bar options at the top of menu.  However, I don't know what 
their rationale was.

One reason I can think of for keeping it at the top is so that it is 
always in the same place in the menu regardless of which component is 
loaded.

This implies a menu design of general shell actions at the top and 
component specific actions at the bottom.

However, there is the issue of seek time for commonly used options which 
may lead to the opposite design if component specific options are used 
more often.  On the other hand since there will be a maximum of three 
such option the difference in seek time may be negligible.

All this probably means that they shouldn't go somewhere in the middle 
of the menu.

Jon