Re: Style Guide suggestion

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

On 6 Jul 1998, Preben Randhol wrote:

> * Marko Macek
> | sun wrote:
> | > this should, of course, be in the "edit" menu. ("edit... preferences"
> | > makes a complete sentence that gives your computer a clear, definite
> | > command.)
> | 
> | I agree. Edit|Preferences is the best solution if there is an Edit menu.
> 
> I disagree. File|Preferences always. Why bother having a Style Guide
> if one has preferences all over the place. What if one had a program
> with an Option menu (for some reason)... No I say put it under File.

	Don't ignore the configuration options like this.  This is a
tricky problems that others haven't solved to my satisfaction yet.  (And
apparently to no one else's yet either.)  For an example of what NOT to
do, look at MS Word.  

	There are at least two types of options.  The first is application
wide...  The second is document wide.  (This works for many applications.
A document could be a connection to a server, a document group, etc.)
These DOCUMENT preferences should probably be in the File|Preferences
menu.  Application wide preferences should be somewhere else.  

	As a side note, we should have a preferences dialog box so it is
easy to program this.  In my dream world, this would mean that all gnome
applications could register their preference menus.  Then a master
customize application could gather all the menus and present them in a
single program.  This could also allow the WM to call the preference
dialog by clicking on the frame.  

	This options dialog would have to be quite easy to use and
general.  Look at the Netscape options menu and KDE for my current
thinking on this.  (A tree view of configure types, and the dialog is
presented to the right of the tree.)

> Btw. why is the menu a toolbar? As of now I find little use of
> dragging the menu out of the window. Maybe it would be useful if one
> could place somewhere else inside the window. What is the master plan?

	There are several master plans.  The WM or the panel could grab
the floating menu and display it in a way comfortable to NeXT and Mac
people...  It could float, but dissappear when the window loses focus.
(Not for those like me who like FocusFollowsMouse.)  There are many
options.

	I've been pushing for tear off menus, and I've been trying to code
it for GTK+, but with little success.  Tear off menus are MUCH more useful
IMHO than tear off menubars.  


						-Ben

------------------------------------ |\      _,,,--,,_  ,) ----------
Benjamin Kahn                        /,`.-'`'   -,  ;-;;'
(212) 924 - 2220                    |,4-  ) )-,_ ) /\
ben@cybersites.com --------------- '---''(_/--' (_/-' ---------------
 If you love something, write it in C; if it compiles, it is yours; 
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