Re: Mockups + idea..

[Ric Klaren <ia_ric cs utwente nl>]

Hi,

On Mon, Aug 03, 1998 at 07:00:45PM +0000, sun wrote:
> the web at http://www.sonetech.com/~bry/mockup.gif,
> http://www.sonetech.com/~bry/mockup2.gif, and
> http://www.sonetech.com/~bry/mockup3.gif

I like them too :)

> closing all the files in an application is _not_ the same as quitting
> the application. you _can_ have an application (a process) running
> without having any documents or files open by that application. this is
> a pretty basic difference here; we shouldn't have to do any convincing
> that these two menu commands should be kept _separate_. "close" and
> "quit" very clearly mean very different things.

Yup.

> the first menu, which i have called the "application menu," which has
> previously been called the "prog menu" and which shall heretofore be
> known by me as "the menu formerly known as prog" (we love you, tom) or
> "tmfkap" is labeled with a foot icon. the jury is still out on this one
> it seems; i happen to like the foot icon, many do not. here it is in
> full color for the first time; now let's get some feedback on it.

I agree on the remarks in some follow ups... maybe it's better to make it
black and white... or let the icon/text of the application menu be handled
by themes as yiyus pointed out.

> anyway. the purpose of this menu is to contain choices which pertain to
> the _entire_ application, not just individual documents or parts of the
> contents of the application. witness the enclosed "mockup2.gif".

One could take this a little step further... bring in some more GNOME
stuff. This is something that is used in the old atari ST GEM/MiNT
userinterface. Under the application menu one would have the stuff as in
mockup2 together with a list of all the currently open (GNOME)
applications. Which you could use to bring the selected app to focus. To
illustrate:

<foot/prog/app/application/tmfkap-menu> ;)
+-----------------+
| Preferences...  |
+-----------------+
| About           |
| Help            |
+-----------------+
| Electric Eyes   |
| Balsa           |
+-----------------+
| Quit            |
+-----------------+

This would bring a GNOME link to the foot so to say. (Under the GNOME foot
one would find all gnome apps in something like a speed select together
with the more application related stuff like quit/about/help). Ok one
could argue that something like that is more part of a window manager. Or
that it is conceptually against the 'Program/Application' concept of the
first menu, but hey things are still under discussion here :)

One thing about the preferences entry... where would 'Save preferences'
wind up (if it's present of course)?

+----------------------+
| Preferences...       |
| Save Preferences...  |
+----------------------+
.                      .

Or have a save button in the Preferences dialog box? (Last is better I think)

What with applications with multiple menu's one could ask?

| About           |
| Help            |
+-----------------+
| Electric Eyes > |
| Balsa         >+-----------------------+
+----------------| Compose to sbdy@som.. |
| Quit           | Balsa Settings        |
                 +-----------------------+

Eg make all the windows of one app apear in a pop-out menu (that the right
terminology? I think the ascii 'art' clarifies enough :) ) This would give
the user very quick access to the windows of a different apps. And as a app
writer you wouldn't have to make a such a fancy window menu (if necessary
at all).

Regards,

Ric
--
-----+++++*****************************************************+++++++++-------
- Ric Klaren - ia_ric@cs.utwente.nl ------- klaren@cs.utwente.nl --------------
-----+++++*****************************************************+++++++++-------
'And this 'rebooting' business? Give it a good kicking, do you?' 'Oh, no,
 of course, we ... that is ... well, yes, in fact,' said Ponder. 'Adrian
   goes round the back and ... er ... prods it with his foot. But in a
    technical way,' he added. --- From: Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.
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