Re: global (MacOS Style) menubar applet

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Mark wrote:

> If I get the global menu working, I might consider making a global
> toolbar dock too. In general though, toolbar buttons should be easier to
> hit since they have a larger target size.

Certainly true if you have both icons and labels switched on, yes, but
if you are showing labels only, the target is little bigger than a menu
title...

I think the more important question is whether a global toolbar dock
would be a sensible or useful thing to have in the first place... we'd
be on completely new ground with that one, and it's not even something
I'd ever considered myself before I started reading this thread an hour
or so ago!  

I'm not sure I see any particular usability advantage in having one, to
be honest (other than the familiarity of seeing the toolbar nestling
under the menu bar).  And what if I'd docked my toolbar to the edge of
my application window rather than the top, for example-- would it dock
to the corresponding edge of the screen in this new model?  What if I
already had a Gnome panel docked to that edge of the screen-- which
would get priority?  Cans of worms abound... I really only mentioned it
as an example of a potential complication that's arisen since the
original Mac menu bar design decision was taken...

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems