New Menus for Windows: Interface Analysis

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

	New Menus for Windows is a program which gives Windows 3.11 a new
user interface.  It can act either alone, or with Program Manager/Task
Manager running.  It's stated goal is to make Windows more "UNIX like."
I really like the interface, and think it has a lot to offer, so I created
a number of screen shots of the interface in action.  You can find them
at:

	http://www.cybersites.com/~xkahn/gnome/nmfw??.gif

	This message has comments to go along with what you're seeing.

nmfw1.gif: The beginning desktop.  Notice that this is shareware, so you
get a little nag tag on the bottom of the screen.  
	In the lower left hand corner is the icon of New Menus (NMFW).  
Clicking on this icon will get you help, an about box, the customize
screen, etc.  
	In the upper right is the virtual desktop.  It can be made any
size, and have any number of screens.  Icons and programs appear on the
desktop, and a program can be between screens.  If an application is
dragged to a new location, all its children window follow.

nmfw2.gif: The popup menu.  This is a menu which appears when you right
click the desktop.  This menu is completely editable through text files
AND a menu editor (which we will see later.)  
	Notice the menu history. This lists the last 10 (or so) items you
most recently selected.
	Printers is a list of all configured printers.  One is
highlighted, and that is the currently selected printer.
	Progman is a dynamic menu of all the program manager folders.
(Start menu anyone?)
	Drives is a menu of all available drives and their folders and
files. Only executable files will be listed, although files with
associations will be listed as well.
	The task item is a menu listing all the running aplications.  This
menu can be found directly by pressing Ctrl-Esc.  (Or Ctrl-Alt-T, I
think.)  Selected tasks in this menu are hidden.

nmfw3.gif: A sample of the popup menu expanded out.
	Selecting the title bar of any of the menus will stick the menu to
the desktop.  This will be shown later.

nmfw4.gif: A sample application with a context sensitive menu.  Notice
that because notepad is a widget, all text entry boxes will have this
menu.  This menu, like all the other menus can be obtained by right
clicking.

nmfw5.gif: Normal menus are still possible, but...

nmfw6.gif: Right clicking on menus gets an improved version.  Notice that
this menu is stuck to the application.  The little arrow on the upper
right hand side of the menu is a window shade button.  This will be
demonstrated later.

nmfw7.gif: The same application with all of its menus detached.  I forgot
to mention that clicking on the pixmap in the upper left hand corner once
will stick the menu onto all desktops, and clicking it again will close
the menu.  
	The menus all have a popup menu as well, which can be obtained by
right clicking on them.  This menu allows you to edit items on it, for
example.  
	But the interesting thing about these menus is...

nmfw8.gif: If another application gets focus, the menus all disappear.

nmfw9.gif: This is the menu configuration tool editing the Main Menu.
Switching menus is done through the Submenu pull down.  Oddly, the button
panel on the right hand side of this dialog is for editing all aspects of
NMFW.  

nmfw10.gif: An example of a single menu displayed multiple times.  One
menu is rolled up.  All menus appear on the virtual desktop.

nmfw11.gif: Right clicking on an icon, or an application's title bar will
get you something similar to this menu.  Notice that functions like "Back"
are not available normally under Windows.  The task manager is available
in this window.  

nmfw12.gif: This is the editor for editing a menu item.  Notice the hotkey
editor.

nmfw13.gif: These are all the menus available under "Window Manager" off
the Main menu.  
	The Wins desktop menu is is the part of the program which acts
like the gnome session manager.  
	The SwitchtoScreen menu is an alternative way of navigating the
virtual desktop, while the Vscreen menu item enables/disables the virtual
desktop.  If it is disabled, all applications are moved to the same
screen.  
	Kill is a UNIX like kill function.  It can actually kill a crashed
application.  (Even when the normal Windows kill function can't.)  

	And that's it!  Enjoy!  I would recommend that we copy many of the
features of this application.  It's VERY easy to teach.  It's very
powerful to use.  Oh!  And I forgot to mention that it is completely
scriptable.  (But that's only possible by editing text files.)

						-Ben

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