Second try...

["Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn" <xkahn cybersites com>]

On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Chris Jantzen wrote:

> sun writes:
>  > it would be a simple matter to make this interface available from within
>  > _all_ gnome applications, too: make a user-configurable setting to make
>  > the menubar disappear, but reappear as a menu itself (i call it the
>  > "root menu") when mouse button 3 is depressed in a window.
>  > 
>  > for a better example, try right-clicking a picture in electriceyes: i
>  > call this a better example because the "quit" command (as well as other
>  > necessary "tmcfkap" [the menu choice formerly known as prog] commands)
>  > are right in the root menu, instead of in a submenu.
> 
> I have always thought this an excellent idea, especially applicable to 
> "lightweight" applications such as EE. I find that for some
> applications, having a menubar makes the interface too cluttered.

	I think we can expand this idea.  (In other words, I like it.)
How about this:

	By default, you have a menu bar.  So... It'd look like this:

 || 8' File Edit Options Appearance Help

	Under Appearance (or View) you can turn off the menubar.  Doing
this EXPANDS the root menu.  (Which resides on button 3 of the mouse.)  So
any context sensitive menu will be added to.  Example:

    ,---------------. <- If this bar is selected, the menu is "pinned."
    |---------------|
    | * Spell Check | <- The old context sensitive menu.  (Which will
    |---------------|    be displayed even if the menubar is visible.)
    | * Cut         |
    | * Copy        |
    | * Paste       |
    |---------------|
    | * About ...   | <- The contents of the "Gnome" Menu are placed
    | * Quit        |    IN the popup menu.  This gives common commands.
    |---------------|
    | * File      > | <- The menu is placed at the bottom.
    | * Edit      > |
    | * Options   > |
    | * Appearance> |
    | * Help      > |
    `---------------'

	Things to notice:  I'm a big fan of pinnable menus.  If it can't
be pinned, I'm not interested in it.  Also, the Gnome menu is expanded
into the popup menu.  This avoids problems with applications like ee which
don't have a nice way to quit.  (Get the popup, go to File, go down to
quit.  Yech.  Sorry Raster.)  

	As a side note, we should look at transparent windows. This is
where the menu is slightly translucent.  Research by Alias
(http://www.alias.com) says this is very helpful for users.

						-Ben

------------------------------------ |\      _,,,--,,_  ,) ----------
Benjamin Kahn                        /,`.-'`'   -,  ;-;;'
(212) 924 - 2220                    |,4-  ) )-,_ ) /\
ben@cybersites.com --------------- '---''(_/--' (_/-' ---------------
          Meet Linux: Forrest Gump as an operating system.