Re: RGSG - contents of Program menu

["Dan \"Effugas\" Kaminsky" <effugas best com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Vogt <tom@lemuria.org>
To: gnome-gui-list@gnome.org <gnome-gui-list@gnome.org>
Date: Wednesday, August 05, 1998 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: RGSG - contents of Program menu


>Dan Effugas Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
>> There's only one thing that's really truly appropriate for the
>> menugnome...that's Exit...
>>
>> There are other app-level commands but they aren't critical.
>
>so YOU think?
>
>where do you put preferences? STOP! don't hit reply yet. let me explain
what
>kind of preferences I mean - those that have NOTHING to do with any file
the
>app can open. one example is netscape's option to display or hide any of
the
>top three bars. or to display icons or text or both in the toolbar. even
you
>should agree that this has nothing to do with any files, so where does it
>belong? in edit?


As I've been saying, I'm *OK* with Preferences going with the
menuprint/Program menu.  But preferences are by their nature rarely
accessed, meaning we take the most prime real estate on the entire menu bar
and fill it with...toys?!  I love screenplays but they're no Save command!
This is HOPEFULLY lessened by making the icon a menuprint and not spelled
out, but lets say it's not and we have to move the gnomeprint to the right
of the rightmost menu.  Do we really want to drag the only copy of Exit far
away from New?

Think about how many critical functions are in File:  New, Open, Save,
Close, Print, even the infernal Exit.  You can't use most applications
without these!  These are DAILY use items because applications ALWAYS
require data to be input, and sometimes output.  Now think how critical
you're making the Program menu...Exit.  The first thing a user sees when
they open an app is the way out, and the way to make something they've never
seen before conform to their nonexistent desires?

Shouldn't File->New come first?

Total creation and total destruction should be in the same menu, no?  That's
why I like the idea of both Exit and Force Quit--presuming the menuprint
survives an app crash, it's a GREAT way to kill process without poking
around.  And Force Quit could do the same semantics that NT does for killing
an app that's in the middle of asking the user if he or she should
save--"Are you sure you want to kill this application?"