Re: The Help Menu

[sun <as387 yfn ysu edu>]

Gleef wrote:

> Using any icon (Gnomeprint or application icon) as a menu is, from my
> experience, a tech support nightmare.  It is far easier to refer to text
> on screen than a picture.  Application icons would have the additional
> disadvantages of being inconsistant, likely to change from one version of
> the application to the next, and potentially very difficult to describe.

agreed, agreed, agreed. having taught people how to use macs for years,
i can authoritatively state that using the application's icon is a bad
idea. example:

"...now click on the application menu..."
"there is no application menu."
"yes there is; it's the one on the far right of the menu bar that's
labelled with the application's icon."
"oh, that menu."

even apple is adding the application's name to the application menu in
mac os 8.5 (currently in beta).

however, i know you've gone on record against the gnome footprint menu
too, and i'd like to point out that that is quite a different beast from
the application menu. i again cast my vote in favor of it, for reasons
i've stated previously, and add that "click on the footprint menu in the
menu bar", while taking a little longer to say, still makes a lot of
sense (nobody questions me when i say "click on the apple menu" in mac
os) and is worth the effort for the unity and identity that's gained.

by the way, i will never ever _ever_ tell one of my customers, friends,
or users, "click on the 'prog' menu." tom, are you reading this? :)

> To further complicate matters, colorblind people will always make the text
> easy for them read, a multi-colored icon might be completely
> incomprehensible, perhaps invisible, to such a user.

this is a bad argument imo. it came up when color-reactiveness was
proposed, and makes me want to ask, "well, hell... why don't we abolish
the whole gui concept, as blind folks won't be able to make very good
use of it?" :) okay, it's extreme but you see my point.

--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin